Hetero-transglycosylase and uses thereof

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a hetero-transglycosylase protein having cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (CXE) activity in addition to mixed-linkage beta-glucan:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (MXE) activity. The protein may comprise the amino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8 or a functional fragment thereof; or an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity to any one of SEQ ID NO: 2, 6 and 8, or to SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280, to SEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or to SEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid 29 to 287. The invention furthermore relates to an isolated nucleic acid encoding the protein described herein, a chimeric gene comprising, inter alia, the nucleic acid described herein, a vector comprising said chimeric gene, a host cell comprising said vector or said chimeric gene and an according transgenic plant. Further disclosed herein in are a method of producing a transgenic plant and a method of improving properties of cellulosic material.

The present invention relates to hetero-transglycosylase (HTG) proteinshaving cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (CXE) activity inaddition to mixed-linkage beta-glucan:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase(MXE) activity. The protein may comprise the amino acid sequence of anyone of SEQ ID NO: 2, 6 and 8 or a functional fragment thereof; or theprotein may comprise an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequenceidentity to any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8 or to SEQ ID NO: 2 fromamino acid 22 to 280, to SEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or toSEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid 29 to 287. The invention furthermorerelates to an isolated nucleic acid encoding the protein describedherein, a chimeric gene comprising, inter alia, the nucleic aciddescribed herein, a vector comprising said chimeric gene, a host cellcomprising said vector or said chimeric gene and transgenic plantcomprising said chimeric gene.

Further disclosed herein are a method of producing a transgenic plantand a method of altering at least one fiber property in afiber-producing plant or for strengthening a plant as characterized inthe claims.

In this specification, a number of documents including patentapplications and manufacturers' manuals are cited. The disclosure ofthese documents, while not considered relevant for the patentability ofthis invention, is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.More specifically, all referenced documents are incorporated byreference to the same extent as if each individual document wasspecifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

The structural integrity of land plants is mediated in large part by thecell walls surrounding plant cells which are held responsible forstrength and flexibility of plants. Besides this function, plant cellwalls are also important for intercellular cohesion and cell-to-cellcommunication. Porosity of the cell walls enable water and nutrientexchange. The primary cell walls of vascular plants consist of cellulosemicrofibrils embedded in a chemically complex matrix consisting ofpolysaccharides such as mainly xyloglucans and pectic polysaccharides indicotyledonous plants and many monocotyledonous plants orglucuronoarabinoxylans and (1,3;1,4)-beta-D-glucans mainly in grassesand cereals. Although the types and abundance of polysaccharides inplant cell walls have been elucidated so far, only little information isavailable on the molecular interactions between polysaccharides in thecell wall. Extensive intermolecular hydrogen bonding rather thancovalent interactions has very long been held responsible for holdingdifferent polysaccharides in place (Bacic et al. 1988; Somerville et al.2004).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Xyloglucans have been found to be an important factor in cell wallmorphogenesis (reviewed in Baumann et al., 2007) and are able to makehydrogen bonds to cellulose, for reference see The Plant Journal, 1993,p. 1-30.

Polysaccharide transglycosylases, also called polysaccharidetransglycanases, catalyze the reorganization of polysaccharide moleculesby cleaving glycosidic linkages in polysaccharide chains andtransferring their cleaved portions to hydroxyl groups at non-reducingresidues of other polysaccharide or oligosaccharide molecules (reviewedby Franková and Fry, 2013; herewith incorporated by reference). Examplesof transglycosylases are transglucosylases (also calledtransglucanases), transxylanases and transmannanases. Of these,Xyloglucan endotransglucosylases (XETs; also called xyloglucanendotransglucanases, or XTHs or xyloglucan xyloglucosyl transferases)restructure xyloglucan in primary and secondary cell walls of landplants including Equisetum and liverworts (Fry et al., 1992; Fry et al.2008). Unlike most other land plants tested, Equisetum additionallyexhibits a distinct endotransglucosylase (or endotransglucanase) calledmixed-linkage beta-glucan:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (MXE) (ormixed-linkage beta-glucan:xyloblucan endotransglucanase). The latterenzyme uses mixed-linkage (1,3;1,4)-beta-glucan (MLG) as the donorsubstrate and attaches it covalently to xyloglucan or a fragment thereof(Fry et al., 2008). So far, enzymes catalyzing heterotransglycosylation, i. e. using qualitatively different donor andacceptor substrates, have been found but not characterized in detail(Ait Mohand and Farka{hacek over (s)}, 2006), or have been found to onlyhave a minor hetero-transglycosylation activity (Hrmova et al., seebelow).

It has been shown that xyloglucans are covalently linked to pecticpolysaccharides (Thompson and Fry 2000). Evidence for covalent linkagebetween xyloglucan and acidic pectins in suspension-cultured rose cellsis described in Abdel-Massih et al. (2003) and Cumming et al. (2005,).Furthermore, Hrmova et al. have shown that an XET from barley links MLG,hydroxyethylcellulose and sulfuric acid swollen cellulose (i. e.cellulose sulfate) to xyloglucan (Hrmova et al. 2007). In its capacityto link MLG to xyloglucan, this barley enzyme exhibits MXE activitywhich, however, amounts only to about 0.2% of its XET activity.

DISCLOSURE OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

So far no transglucosylase activity has been described that covalentlyattaches insoluble cellulose to xyloglucan. Such activity could haveimportant applications in the functionalization of cellulosic materialssuch as textiles, paper or wood pulp.

Accordingly, in a first embodiment, the present invention relates to aprotein having cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (CXE) activity.

In one embodiment, the protein is derived from Equisetum, such asEquisetum fluviatile, Equisetum hyemale, or Equisetum diffusum.

In another embodiment, the protein comprises (a) the amino acid sequenceof any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8 or a functional fragment thereof;or (b) an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity tothe sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8; or (c) an amino acidsequence having at least 60% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ IDNO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280, to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 fromamino acid 26 to 283, or to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid29 to 287.

Unless indicated otherwise, the embodiments and examples described belowfor certain aspects disclosed herein are also applicable to respectiveembodiments of other aspects disclosed herein.

The term “protein” as used herein describes a group of moleculesconsisting of more than 30 amino acids, whereas the term “peptide”describes molecules consisting of up to 30 amino acids. Proteins andpeptides may further form dimers, trimers and higher oligomers, i.e.consisting of more than one (poly)peptide molecule. Protein or peptidemolecules forming such dimers, trimers etc. may be identical ornon-identical. The corresponding higher order structures are,consequently, termed homo- or heterodimers, homo- or heterotrimers etc.The terms “protein” and “peptide” also refer to naturally modifiedproteins or peptides wherein the modification is effected e.g. byglycosylation, acetylation, phosphorylation and the like. Suchmodifications are well known in the art.

Cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (CXE) activity denotes theactivity of the protein of the invention to catalyse the transfer ofglucan (or cello-oligosaccharides) units from cellulose as the donormolecule to xyloglucan (or oligosaccharides thereof) as acceptormolecule. More particularly, the protein of the invention cleaves aβ-(1→4)-glucose bond in a cellulose chain, and then re-forms aglycosidic bond to a non-reducing residue of a xyloglucan polymer oroligomer, the acceptor substrate.

As used herein, the term “comprising” is to be interpreted as specifyingthe presence of the stated features, integers, steps or components asreferred to, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one ormore features, integers, steps or components, or groups thereof. Thus,e.g., a nucleic acid or protein comprising a sequence of nucleotides oramino acids, may comprise more nucleotides or amino acids than theactually cited ones, i.e., be embedded in a larger nucleic acid orprotein or attached to another nucleic acid or protein stretch. Achimeric gene comprising a DNA region which is functionally orstructurally defined may accordingly comprise additional DNA regionsetc. However, in context with the present disclosure, the term“comprising” also includes “consisting of”.

A “functional fragment” of the amino acid sequences of any one of SEQ IDNOs: 2, 6 and 8 denotes a protein or peptide comprising a stretch of theamino acid sequences listed above which still exerts the desiredfunction, i. e. which has cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylaseactivity. An assay for determining of whether a functional fragment hascellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity is disclosed in theappended examples. An example of a functional fragment of the amino acidsequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 is the fragment comprising amino acids 22 to280 of SEQ ID NO: 2; an example of a functional fragment of the aminoacid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 is the fragment comprising amino acids 26to 283 of SEQ ID NO: 6, and an example of a functional fragment of theamino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8 is the fragment comprising aminoacids 29 to 287 of SEQ ID NO: 8.

In one aspect, the present protein having cellulose:xyloglucanendotransglucosylase activity comprises an amino acid sequence having atleast 50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, at least 80%, at least 90%, atleast 95% or at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 2 or to SEQ IDNO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280 or to SEQ ID NO: 6 or to SEQ ID NO: 6from amino acid 26 to 283, or to SEQ ID NO: 8, or to SEQ ID NO: 8 fromamino acid 29 to 287. Such amino acid sequences also includeartificially derived amino acid sequences, such as those generated, forexample, by mutagenesis of the nucleic acids encoding the amino acid ofSEQ ID NO: 2 or of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280 or of SEQ IDNO: 6 or of SEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or of SEQ ID NO: 8,or of SEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid 29 to 287. Generally, amino acidsequences disclosed herein may have at least 50%, such as 52%, 54%, 56%,58%, at least 60%, such as 62%, 64%, 66%, 68%, at least 70%, such as72%, 74%, 75%, 76%, 78%, at least 80%, e.g., 81% to 84%, at least 85%,e.g., 86%, 87%, 88%, 89%, 90%, 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, to98%, and 99% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2 or of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280 or of SEQ ID NO: 6 or ofSEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or of SEQ ID NO: 8, or of SEQ IDNO: 8 from amino acid 29 to 287.

As used herein, the term “percent sequence identity” refers to thepercentage of identical amino acids between two segments of a window ofoptimally aligned amino acid sequences. Optimal alignment of sequencesfor aligning a comparison window are well-known to those skilled in theart and may be conducted by tools such as the local homology algorithmof Smith and Waterman (Waterman, M. S., Chapman & Hall. London, 1995),the homology alignment algorithm of Needleman and Wunsch (1970), thesearch for similarity method of Pearson and Lipman (1988), andpreferably by computerized implementations of these algorithms such asGAP, BESTFIT, FASTA, and TFASTA available as part of the GCG (RegisteredTrade Mark), Wisconsin Package (Registered Trade Mark from AccelrysInc., San Diego, Calif.). An “identity fraction” for aligned segments ofa test sequence and a reference sequence is the number of identicalcomponents that are shared by the two aligned sequences divided by thetotal number of components in the reference sequence segment, i.e., theentire reference sequence or a smaller defined part of the referencesequence. Percent sequence identity is represented as the identityfraction times 100. The comparison of one or more amino acid or DNAsequences may be to a full-length amino acid or DNA sequence or aportion thereof, or to a longer amino acid or DNA sequence. Sequenceidentity is calculated based on the shorter nucleotide or amino acidsequence.

Only proteins which have cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylaseactivity are encompassed by the present invention. Proteins havingcellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity disclosed hereininclude the amino acid sequences disclosed herein and those with theindicated degree of sequence identity but also deletions of sequence,single or multiple sequence alterations or addition of functionalelements as long as cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activityis essentially retained. Techniques for obtaining such derivatives arewell-known in the art (see, for example, J. F. Sambrook, D. W. Russell,and N. Irwin, 2000). For example, one of ordinary skill in the art maydelimit the functional elements within the protein disclosed herein anddelete any non-essential elements. The functional elements may bemodified or combined to increase the utility or expression of thesequences of the invention for any particular application. Those ofskill in the art are familiar with the standard resource materials thatdescribe specific conditions and procedures for the construction,manipulation, and isolation of macromolecules (e.g. DNA molecules,plasmids, proteins etc.), as well as the generation of recombinantorganisms and the screening and isolation of DNA molecules and proteins.

The present inventors, for the first time, show thathetero-transglucosylases exist which are able to directly link celluloseto xyloglucan.

As described above, Baumann et al. describe the enzymatic activity ofNXG1 from Tropaeolum majus which can use cello-oligosaccharides asacceptors. They observed, inter alia, cellobiose, cellotriose andcellotetraose products. This partly contradicts the findings of AitMohand et al. (2006) who could show such products when applyingfluorescent dyes in the detection method but not when radio-labeledprobes were used. The authors concluded that the detected activity couldbe an artificial one attributed to the presence of the fluorescent dyewithin the cellooligosaccharides used as acceptor. Hrmova et al. (2007)demonstrated that a purified XET from barley seedlings catalyzes invitro formation of covalent linkages between certain soluble substrates(such as hydroxyethylcellulose and cellulose sulfate) and xyloglucan.The authors indicate that such activity has not been demonstrated tohave any in muro significance. Such demonstration would requireisolation of a short fragment of 10 or fewer glycosyl residues that canbe clearly shown to originate from two distinct polysaccharide typessuch as cellulose and xyloglucan.

So far, no enzymatic activity linking cellulose to xyloglucan has beendemonstrated, as opposed to soluble cellulosic material such ashydroxyethylcellulose or sulfuric acid swollen cellulose. As shown inthe appended examples, the nucleic acids encoding an enzyme with suchactivity have been found in Equisetum by the present inventors. By anovel method enabling to directly measure the new activity withcellulose as donor they could surprisingly show that the novel enzyme isable to transfer the insoluble donor cellulose to the soluble xyloglucanwhereas previous studies could only identify an enzymatic activity onsoluble cellulose derivatives. By comparing the results obtainedtherewith with those obtained for other donor-acceptor combinations, thepresent inventors in addition showed that the novel activity is one ofthe predominant activities of the protein of the invention.

In one embodiment, said cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylaseactivity is one of the predominant activities of the protein.

The term “predominant activity” denotes an activity of the proteindisclosed herein as cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase which isat least 5% that of the highest activity on other donors/acceptors. Inone example, the activity is at least 10%, at least 20%, at least 30%,at least 40%, at least 50%, at least the same (at least 100%), at least200%, at least 500% or at least 1000% that of the highest activity onother donors/acceptors. The protein of the invention may have more thanone predominant activity such as two or three which preferably differ bythe factor of 10 or less. The protein of the invention may also have oneor more activities related to soluble cellulose derivatives such aswater-soluble cellulose acetate, hydroxyethylcellulose,carboxymethylcellulose, cellulose sulphate.

Methods of measuring and comparing an enzyme's activity on differentsoluble donor/acceptor combinations are known in the art and can also befound in the appended examples. A method to determine an enzyme'sactivity on (insoluble) cellulose as the donor molecule is disclosed inthe appended examples. The nature of the soluble or insoluble donormolecules does not allow a determination of enzymatic activity understrictly the same conditions because e. g. cellulose as an insolubledonor molecule is much less accessible to the enzyme than soluble donormolecules. However, for the purpose of the present invention, acomparison between different activities can be conducted underconditions described in the appended examples for soluble and insolubledonor molecules.

In one example, the protein of the invention further has MXE activity.

Also disclosed is an isolated nucleic acid encoding the proteindisclosed herein.

Nucleic acids can be DNA or RNA, single- or double-stranded. Nucleicacids can be synthesized chemically or produced by biological expressionin vitro or even in vivo.

Nucleic acids can be chemically synthesized using appropriatelyprotected ribonucleoside phosphoramidites and a conventional DNA/RNAsynthesizer. Suppliers of RNA synthesis reagents are Proligo (Hamburg,Germany), Dharmacon Research (Lafayette, Colo., USA), Pierce Chemical(part of Perbio Science, Rockford, Ill., USA), Glen Research (Sterling,Va., USA), ChemGenes (Ashland, Mass., USA), and Cruachem (Glasgow, UK).

In connection with the chimeric gene of the present disclosure, DNAincludes cDNA and genomic DNA.

An “isolated nucleic acid” or “isolated nucleic acid sequence”, as usedin the present application, refers to a nucleic acid as defined abovewhich is not naturally-occurring (such as an artificial or syntheticnucleic acid with a different nucleotide sequence than thenaturally-occurring nucleic acid or a nucleic acid which is shorter thana naturally occurring one) or which is no longer in the naturalenvironment wherein it was originally present, e.g., a nucleic acidcoding sequence associated with a heterologous regulatory element (suchas a bacterial coding sequence operably-linked to a plant-expressiblepromoter) in a chimeric gene or a nucleic acid transferred into anotherhost cell, such as a transgenic plant cell.

The protein having cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (CXE)activity according to the invention can be a HTG protein.

A “HTG protein”, also called “HTG-enzyme”, “hetero-trans-β-glucanase”,or “hetero-trans-β-glucosylase”, as used herein is ahetero-transglycosylase, or hetero-transglycanase, of which the majoractivity is a hetero-transglucosylase activity. Said major activity canbe at least 50%, at least 60%, or at least 70% of the total activity. AHTG can have MXE and CXE activity.

The nucleic acid encoding the protein having cellulose:xyloglucanendotransglucosylase (CXE) activity, or said HTG protein, could beintroduced into other plants to create modified cellulose microfibrilsin the living plant, e. g. crop plant.

It is believed that expressing the present nucleic acid in a plantresults in an activity of the resulting enzyme which covalently linkssome of the plant's cellulose molecules to its endogenous xyloglucan,thus strengthening the cell wall, e.g. in plant fiber products. Wallstrengthening could also be useful in any crop plant, e.g. to minimizelodging of (crop) plants such as cereals or oilseeds or to enhance thestrength of wood or crop plants.

Alternatively, a plant expressing the nucleic acid disclosed hereincould be either fed, or genetically altered to synthesise endogenously,xyloglucan, wherein said xyloglucan, in case of feeding optionally has afurther organic or inorganic molecule attached to it (as describedfurther below). Potential applications include: cellulosic paper,cellulosic textiles e.g. cotton or linen, cellulosic packaging e.g.cardboard, cellulosic building materials e.g. timber and chipboard,cellulosic derivatives e.g. carboxymethylcellulose or cellulose acetate,thickening agents e.g. xanthan gum or derivatives thereof, cellulosicmedical dressings e.g. cotton wool, gauzes, cellophane, dialysis tubing,cellulosic chromatography column packing materials; the attached organicor inorganic substances could be selected to enable affinitychromatography.

In another example, the plant expressing the nucleic acid disclosedherein could be harvested under conditions maintaining the activities ofthe HTG enzyme, e.g. in plant fibers, such that xyloglucan or axyloglucan oligosaccharide, optionally having an organic or inorganicsubstance attached thereto could be incorporated into the cellulosepost-harvest with no further addition of enzyme. Potential applicationsare listed above.

Alternatively, the HTG protein could be expressed heterologously, e.g.in a micro-organism, and, after isolation, applied post-harvest tounmodified plant fibers or (plant-derived) cellulose in the presence ofxyloglucan or a xyloglucan oligosaccharide, optionally having an organicor inorganic molecule attached thereto, to which the cellulose wouldbecome attached covalently.

In summary, by adding the protein of the invention to insolublecellulosic material, i. e. material comprising cellulose, the presentinventors are able to increase the amount of xyloglucan mediatedinterlinkages between the cellulosic fibers. Hereby they have created anenvironmentally friendly enzymatic process for improving the strengthand/or other properties of various cellulosic materials as analternative to the chemical processes known so far. Alternatively, theprotein of the invention allows covalently attachment of newfunctionalities to the cellulose through covalent linkage of modifiedxyloglucans.

In one example, the isolated nucleic acid comprises a nucleic acidhaving at least 60% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1, or SEQ ID NO: 5,or SEQ ID NO: 7 or the complement thereof, or a nucleic acid having atleast 60% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to 840 orthe complement thereof, or to SEQ ID NO: 5 from nucleotide 76 to 849 orthe complement thereof, or to SEQ ID NO: 7 from nucleotide 85 to 861 orthe complement thereof, or a nucleic acid sequence hybridizing underhigh stringency conditions to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or SEQ IDNO: 5, or SEQ ID NO: 7 or the complement thereof. Said isolated nucleicacid may also comprise or consist of the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ IDNO: 1 or of SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to 840 or of SEQ ID NO: 5 orof SEQ ID NO: 5 from nucleotide 76 to 849 or of SEQ ID NO: 7, or of SEQID NO: 7 from nucleotide 85 to 861 or the complement thereof. Furtherprovided is a nucleic acid, which may be an isolated nucleic acid havingat least 60% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to 840or the complement thereof, provided that nucleotide 1 to 63 are notpresent, or to SEQ ID NO: 5 from nucleotide 76 to 849 or the complementthereof provided that nucleotide 1 to 75 are not present, or to SEQ IDNO: 7 from nucleotide 85 to 861 or the complement thereof, provided thatnucleotide 1 to 84 are not present. Further provided is a nucleic acid,which may be an isolated nucleic acid, encoding a protein comprising anamino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity to thesequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8 of which codon usage isadapted for expression in bacteria, or for expression in yeast, or forexpression in plants.

Codon usage can be optimized, for example, as described by Moreira,2004.

Also disclosed herein is a chimeric gene comprising the followingoperably linked elements: (a) a promoter, e. g. a promoter expressiblein plants, bacteria or yeast; (b) the nucleic acid capable of modulatingexpression of the protein as described herein; and, optinally, (c) atranscription termination and polyadenylation region.

A nucleic acid capable of modulating expression of the protein asdescribed herein can be a nucleic acid capable of downregulatingexpression of the protein as described herein.

In another embodiment, said nucleic acid capable of modulatingexpression of the protein of the invention is selected from the groupconsisting of a nucleic acid sequence encoding the protein according tothe invention; a nucleic acid sequence having at least 60% sequenceidentity to any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 5 and 7 or the complement thereof;a nucleic acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity to thesequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to 840 or the complementthereof, to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5 from nucleotide 76 to 849 orthe complement thereof, or to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7 fromnucleotide 85 to 861 or the complement thereof; and a nucleic acidsequence hybridizing under high stringency conditions to the sequence ofany one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 5 and 7 or the complement thereof.

An nucleic acid capable of downregulating or, in other words, decreasingexpression of the protein as described herein can be an nucleic acidencoding a protein which inhibits expression and/or activity of saidprotein. Further, said nucleic acid molecule that results in a decreasedexpression of the protein as described herein can also be a nucleic acidmolecule which inhibits expression of a gene which is an activator ofexpression of said protein. Said nucleic acid molecule that inhibits theexpression of the protein as described herein may also be an RNAmolecule that directly inhibits expression of said protein, such as anRNA which mediates silencing of the gene encoding said protein.

Decreasing the expression and/or activity of the protein of theinvention can be decreasing the amount of functional protein produced.Said decrease can be a decrease with at least 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%,80%, 90%, 95% or 100% (i.e. no functional protein is produced by thecell) as compared to the amount of functional protein produced by a cellwith wild type expression levels and activity. Said decrease inexpression can be a constitutive decrease in the amount of functionalprotein produced. Said decrease can also be a temporal/inducibledecrease in the amount of functional protein produced.

The expression of the gene encoding the protein according to theinvention can conveniently be reduced or eliminated by transcriptionalor post-transcriptional silencing of the expression of endogenous gene.To this end and within the chimeric gene described above, a silencingRNA molecule is introduced in the plant cells targeting the endogenousgenes encoding the protein of the invention. As used herein, “silencingRNA” or “silencing RNA molecule” refers to any RNA molecule, which uponintroduction into a cell, reduces the expression of a target gene. Suchsilencing RNA may e.g. be so-called “antisense RNA”, whereby the RNAmolecule comprises a sequence of at least 20 consecutive nucleotideshaving 95% sequence identity to the complement of the sequence of thetarget nucleic acid, preferably the coding sequence of the target gene.However, antisense RNA may also be directed to regulatory sequences oftarget genes, including the promoter sequences and transcriptiontermination and polyadenylation signals. Silencing RNA further includesso-called “sense RNA” whereby the RNA molecule comprises a sequence ofat least 20 consecutive nucleotides having 95% sequence identity to thesequence of the target nucleic acid. Other silencing RNA may be“unpolyadenylated RNA” comprising at least 20 consecutive nucleotideshaving 95% sequence identity to the complement of the sequence of thetarget nucleic acid, such as described in WO01/12824 or U.S. Pat. No.6,423,885 (both documents herein incorporated by reference). Yet anothertype of silencing RNA is an RNA molecule as described in WO03/076619(herein incorporated by reference) comprising at least 20 consecutivenucleotides having at least 95%, at least 96%, at least 97% at least98%, at least 99% or 100% sequence identity to the sequence of thetarget nucleic acid or the complement thereof, and further comprising alargely-double stranded region as described in WO03/076619 (includinglargely double stranded regions comprising a nuclear localization signalfrom a viroid of the Potato spindle tuber viroid-type or comprising CUGtrinucleotide repeats). Silencing RNA may also be double stranded RNAcomprising a sense and antisense strand as herein defined, wherein thesense and antisense strand are capable of base-pairing with each otherto form a double stranded RNA region (preferably the said at least 20consecutive nucleotides of the sense and antisense RNA are complementaryto each other). The sense and antisense region may also be presentwithin one RNA molecule such that a hairpin RNA (hpRNA) can be formedwhen the sense and antisense region form a double stranded RNA region.hpRNA is well-known within the art (see e.g WO99/53050, hereinincorporated by reference). The hpRNA may be classified as long hpRNA,having long, sense and antisense regions which can be largelycomplementary, but need not be entirely complementary (typically largerthan about 200 bp, ranging between 200-1000 bp). hpRNA can also berather small ranging in size from about 30 to about 42 bp, but not muchlonger than 94 bp (see WO04/073390, herein incorporated by reference).An ihpRNA is an intron-containing hairpin RNA, which has the samegeneral structure as an hpRNA, but the RNA molecule additionallycomprises an intron in the loop of the hairpin that is capable of beingspliced in the cell in which the ihpRNA is expressed. The use of anintron minimizes the size of the loop in the hairpin RNA moleculefollowing splicing, and this increases the efficiency of interference.See, for example, Smith et al (2000) Nature 407:319-320. In fact, Smithet al, show 100% suppression of endogenous gene expression usingihpRNA-mediated interference. In some embodiments, the intron is theADHI intron 1. Methods for using ihpRNA interference to inhibit theexpression of endogenous plant genes are described, for example, inSmith et al, (2000) Nature 407:319-320; Waterhouse and Helliwell, (2003)Nat. Rev. Genet. 4:29-38; Helliwell and Waterhouse, (2003) Methods30:289-295 and US2003180945, each of which is herein incorporated byreference. A transient assay for the efficiency of hpRNA constructs tosilence gene expression in vivo has been described by Panstruga, et al.(2003). The chimeric gene for hpRNA interference may also be designedsuch that the sense sequence and the antisense sequence do notcorrespond to an endogenous RNA. In this embodiment, the sense andantisense sequence flank a loop sequence that comprises a nucleotidesequence corresponding to all or part of the endogenous messenger RNA ofthe target gene present in the plant. Thus, it is the loop region thatdetermines the specificity of the RNA interference. See, for example,WO0200904 herein incorporated by reference.

Silencing RNA may also be artificial micro-RNA molecules as describede.g. in WO2005/052170, WO2005/047505 or US 2005/0144667, or ta-siRNAs asdescribed in WO2006/074400 (all documents incorporated herein byreference).

A chimeric gene is an artificial gene constructed by operably linkingfragments of unrelated genes or other nucleic acid sequences. In otherwords “chimeric gene” denotes a gene which is not normally found in aplant species or refers to any gene in which the promoter or one or moreother regulatory regions of the gene are not associated in nature with apart or all of the transcribed nucleic acid, i. e. are heterologous withrespect to the transcribed nucleic acid. More particularly, a chimericgene is an artificial, i. e. non-naturally occurring, gene produced byan operable linkage of a promoter expressible in plants and the nucleicacid disclosed herein, such as the nucleic acid comprising the nucleicacid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or of SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to840 or of SEQ ID NO: 5 or of SEQ ID NO: 5 from nucleotide 76 to 849, orof SEQ ID NO: 7, or of SEQ ID NO: 7 from nucleotide 85 to 861, or afunctional fragment of any one of these sequences, or a nucleic acidsequence having at least 60% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1 or to SEQID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to 840 or of SEQ ID NO: 5 or of SEQ ID NO: 5from nucleotide 76 to 849, or of SEQ ID NO: 7, or of SEQ ID NO: 7 fromnucleotide 85 to 861 any of which encode a protein havingcellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity, wherein said plantexpressible promoter is not naturally operably linked to said nucleicacid.

The term “heterologous” refers to the relationship between two or morenucleic acid or protein sequences that are derived from differentsources. For example, a promoter is heterologous with respect to anoperably linked nucleic acid sequence, such as a coding sequence, ifsuch a combination is not normally found in nature. In addition, aparticular sequence may be “heterologous” with respect to a cell ororganism into which it is inserted (i.e. does not naturally occur inthat particular cell or organism). For example, the chimeric genedisclosed herein is a heterologous nucleic acid.

The expression “operably linked” means that said elements of thechimeric gene are linked to one another in such a way that theirfunction is coordinated and allows expression of the coding sequence,i.e. they are functionally linked. By way of example, a promoter isfunctionally linked to another nucleic acid sequence when it is capableof ensuring transcription and ultimately expression of said nucleic acidsequence, and two protein encoding nucleotide sequences, e.g. a signalpeptide encoding nucleic acid sequence and a nucleic acid sequenceencoding a protein having cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylaseactivity, are functionally or operably linked to each other if they areconnected in such a way that a fusion protein of first and secondprotein or polypeptide can be formed.

A promoter may be any regulatory element being able to drive expressionof a gene in a desired host cell or organism, such as plant cells andplants, bacteria or yeast. For the case of plants, use may be made ofany promoter sequence of a gene which is naturally expressed in plants,such as for example promoters of bacterial, viral or plant origin.

Promoters may generally be constitutive or inducible.

A plant expressible promoter can be a constitutive promoter, i.e. apromoter capable of directing high levels of expression in most celltypes (in a spatio-temporal independent manner).

Examples of plant expressible constitutive promoters include promotersof bacterial origin, such as the octopine synthase (OCS) and nopalinesynthase (NOS) promoters from Agrobacterium, but also promoters of viralorigin, such as that of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35Stranscript (Hapster et al., 1988) or 19S RNA genes (Odell et al., 1985;U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,605; WO 84/02913; Benfey et al., 1989), promoters ofthe cassava vein mosaic virus (CsVMV; WO 97/48819, U.S. Pat. No.7,053,205), the circovirus (AU 689 311) promoter, the sugarcanebacilliform badnavirus (ScBV) promoter (Samac et al., 2004), the figwortmosaic virus (FMV) promoter (Sanger et al., 1990), the subterraneanclover virus promoter No 4 or No 7 (WO 96/06932) and the enhanced 35Spromoter as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,316, U.S. Pat. No.5,196,525, U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,938, U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,142 and U.S.Pat. No. 5,424,200. Among the promoters of plant origin, mention will bemade of the promoters of the plant ribulose-bisphosphatecarboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) small subunit promoter (U.S. Pat. No.4,962,028), the promoter of the Arabidopsis thaliana histone H4 gene(Chabouté et al., 1987), the ubiquitin promoters (Holtorf et al., 1995)of Maize, Rice and sugarcane, the Rice actin 1 promoter (Act-1, U.S.Pat. No. 5,641,876), the histone promoters as described in EP 0 507 698A1 and the Maize alcohol dehydrogenase 1 promoter (Adh-1).

Alternatively, a promoter sequence specific for particular regions,tissues or organs of plants can be used to express the protein disclosedherein. Examples of such promoters that can be used are tissue-specificor organ-specific promoters like organ primordia-specific promoters (Anet al., 1996), stem-specific promoters (Keller et al., 1988),mesophyll-specific promoters (such as the light-inducible Rubiscopromoters), fiber-specific promoters such as the fiber-specific promoterof the fiber-specific β-tubulin gene (as described in WO0210377), of afiber-specific actin gene (as described in WO0210413), of a fiberspecific lipid transfer protein gene (as described in U.S. Pat. No.5,792,933), the promoter from the seed coat and fiber-specific protease(Hou et al., 2008), the promoter from fiber-specific R2R3 MYB gene fromcotton (Pu et al., 2008), a promoter from an expansin gene from cotton(WO9830698), a promoter from a chitinase gene in cotton (US2003106097),the promoter of CesAl (U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,443), the F286 promoter (seeUS2003/106097), the cotton E6 promoter (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,950) orthe promoters of the fiber specific genes described in U.S. Pat. No.6,259,003 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,294 or WO96040924), root-specificpromoters (Keller et al., 1989), vascular tissue-specific promoters(Peleman et al), seed-specific promoters (Datla, R. et al., 1997),especially the napin promoter (EP 255 378 A1), the phaseolin promoter,the glutenin promoter, the petunia FBP7 promoter, the helianthininpromoter (WO 92/17580), the albumin promoter (WO 98/45460), the oleosinpromoter (WO 98/45461), the SAT1 promoter or the SAT3 promoter(PCT/US98/06978), and the like.

Use may also be made of an inducible promoter advantageously chosen fromthe phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), HMG-CoA reductase (HMG),chitinase, glucanase, proteinase inhibitor (PI), PR1 family gene,nopaline synthase (nos) and vspB promoters (U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,349,Table 3), the HMG2 promoter (U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,349), the applebeta-galactosidase (ABG1) promoter and the apple aminocyclopropanecarboxylate synthase (ACC synthase) promoter (WO 98/45445).

Suitable promoters for (inducible) expression in bacteria are well-knownin the art and include the T3 or T7 promoters (in connection with theexpression of a T3 or T7 RNA polymerase), the lac promoter, the trc andtac promoters, the phage promoter pL, the tetA promoter and the PPBAD orrhaPBAD promoters.

Promoters suitable for expression in yeasts are well-known in the artand include the TEF promoter, the CYC1 promoter, the ADH1 promoter, theAOX1 promoter (methanol inducible) and the GAL promoter and variantsthereof.

The (plant expressible) promoter may for example be altered to containe. g. “enhancer DNA” to assist in elevating gene expression. As iswell-known in the art, certain DNA elements can be used to enhance thetranscription of DNA. These enhancers are often found 5′ to the start oftranscription in a promoter that functions in eukaryotic cells, but canoften be inserted upstream (5′) or downstream (3′) to the codingsequence. In some instances, these enhancer DNA elements are introns.Among the introns that are useful as enhancer DNA are the 5′ intronsfrom the rice actin 1 gene (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,876), the rice actin2 gene, the Arabidopsis histone 4 intron, the maize alcoholdehydrogenase gene, the maize heat shock protein 70 gene (see U.S. Pat.No. 5,593,874), the maize shrunken 1 gene, the light sensitive 1 gene ofSolanum tuberosum, and the heat shock protein 70 gene of Petunia hybrida(see U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,122). Thus, as contemplated herein, a promoteror promoter region includes variations of promoters derived by insertingor deleting regulatory regions, subjecting the promoter to random orsite-directed mutagenesis etc. The activity or strength of a promotermay be measured in terms of the amounts of RNA it produces, or theamount of protein accumulation in a cell or tissue, relative to apromoter whose transcriptional activity has been previously assessed.

The chimeric gene may also comprise a transcription termination orpolyadenylation sequence, e. g. one operable in a plant cell. As atranscription termination or polyadenylation sequence, use may be madeof any corresponding sequence of bacterial origin, such as for examplethe nos terminator of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, of viral origin, suchas for example the CaMV 35S terminator, or of plant origin, such as forexample a histone terminator as described in published PatentApplication EP 0 633 317 A1.

Within the scope of the present disclosure, use may also be made, incombination with the promoter and the nucleic acid disclosed herein, ofother regulatory sequences, which are located between said promoter andsaid nucleic acid. Non-limiting examples of such regulatory sequencesinclude transcription activators (“enhancers”) or introns as describedelsewhere in this application. Other suitable regulatory sequencesinclude 5′ UTRs. As used herein, a 5′UTR, also referred to as leadersequence, is a particular region of a messenger RNA (mRNA) locatedbetween the transcription start site and the start codon of the codingregion. It is involved in mRNA stability and translation efficiency. Forexample, the 5′ untranslated leader of a petunia chlorophyll a/b bindingprotein gene downstream of the 35S transcription start site can beutilized to augment steady-state levels of reporter gene expression(Harpster et al., 1988). WO95/006742 describes the use of 5′non-translated leader sequences derived from genes coding for heat shockproteins to increase transgene expression. The translation activators ofthe tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) leader described in Application WO87/07644 as well as that of the tobacco etch virus (TEV) leaderdescribed by Carrington & Freed 1990, J. Virol. 64: 1590-1597 may alsobe used in the present invention.

The chimeric gene may further comprise a nucleotide sequence encoding aprotein targeting sequence for targeting the expressed protein tospecific organelles or compartments within the host cell, or forsecretion.

A protein targeting sequence is a short (3-60 amino acids long) aminoacid sequence that directs the transport of a protein within or outsidethe cell. Protein targeting peptides may also be called signal peptides(for secretion), transit peptides (for targeting to plastids), orprotein retention sequences.

A suitable signal sequence for secretion of protein expressed in yeastssuch as Pichia pastoris is the signal sequence of the α factor matingprotein (Cregg et al., 1993). An example for a signal peptide forsecretion of fused proteins in plants is that of the PR1a protein ofNicotiana tabacum (Cornelissen et al. 1986).

Fusion of such signal sequences to the protein disclosed herein bylinking DNA fragments encoding the respective protein and the signalsequence can be achieved using standard recombinant DNA techniques.

In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a vector comprisingthe chimeric gene described herein.

The vector can be, e. g., a plasmid, cosmid, virus, bacteriophage oranother vector used conventionally e.g. in genetic engineering.

The nucleic acid molecule of the present invention may be inserted intoseveral commercially available vectors. Non-limiting examples includeprokaryotic plasmid vectors, such as the pUCseries, pBluescript(Stratagene), the pET-series of expression vectors (Novagen) or pCRTOPO(Invitrogen), lambda gt11, pJOE, the pBBR1-MCS series, pJB861, pBSMuL,pBC2, pUCPKS, pTACT1 and vectors compatible with expression ineukaryotic cells, such as yeast or mammalian cells, like pREP(Invitrogen), pCEP4 (Invitrogen), pMC1 neo (Stratagene), pXT1(Stratagene), pSG5 (Stratagene), EBO-pSV2neo, pBPV-1, pdBPVMMTneo,pRSVgpt, pRSVneo, pSV2-dhfr, p1ZD35, Okayama-Berg cDNA expression vectorpcDV1 (Pharmacia), pRc/CMV, pcDNA1, pcDNA3 (Invitrogen), pSPORT1 (GIBCOBRL), pGEMHE (Promega), pLXIN, pSIR (Clontech), pIRES-EGFP (Clontech),pEAK-10 (Edge Biosystems) pTriEx-Hygro (Novagen) and pCINeo (Promega).Examples for plasmid vectors suitable for the yeast Pichia pastoriscomprise e.g. the plasmids pA0815, pPICZ, pPICZα, pPIC9K and pPIC3.5K(all Invitrogen).

Suitable vectors for introduction into plants include those disclosed inCornelissen and Vandewiele (1989), Lindbo (2007), Gritch et al (2006) orWagner et al (2004).

Also described herein is a host cell comprising the chimeric gene or thevector described herein. Suitable prokaryotic host cells comprise e.g.bacteria of the genera Escherichia, Streptomyces, Salmonella orBacillus. Suitable eukaryotic host cells are e.g. yeasts such asSaccharomyces cerevisiae or Pichia pastoris. Insect cells suitable forexpression are e.g. Drosophila S2 or Spodoptera Sf9 cells. Plant cellssuitable for the present invention include any plant cell comprisingessentially the genetic information necessary to define a plant, whichmay, apart from the chimeric gene disclosed herein, be supplemented byone or more further transgenes. Cells may be derived from the variousorgans and/or tissues forming a plant, including but not limited tofruits, seeds, embryos, reproductive tissue, meristematic regions,callus tissue, leaves, roots, shoots, flowers, vascular tissue,gametophytes, sporophytes, pollen, and microspores.

In one example, the host cell of the invention further comprises atleast one further chimeric gene comprising a (plant expressible)promoter, a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein able to synthesizexyloglucan in said host cell, and a transcription termination andpolyadenylation region. For example, one chimeric gene could comprise anucleic acid sequence encoding CsIC4 from Arabidopsis (Cocuron et al.,2007) in combination with another chimeric gene comprising a nucleicacid encoding an alpha-xylosyltransferase XT1 from Arabidopsis (Faik etal., 2002). As described further below, this embodiment serves for theproduction of cellulose covalently linked to xyloglucan(oligosaccharides) in case the host cell does not produce xyloglucan byitself.

Also disclosed herein is a plant, plant part or seed comprising thechimeric gene described herein, the vector described herein or the plantcell described herein.

The plant of the present invention can be any plant. Non-limitingexamples of plants of the invention include wheat, cotton, canola andother oilseed rape, rice, corn, soy bean, sorghum, sunflower, tobacco,sugar beet, maize, barley, tomato, mango, peach, apple, pear,strawberry, banana, melon, potato, carrot, lettuce, cabbage, onion,sugar cane, pea, field beans, poplar, grape, citrus, alfalfa, rye, oats,turf and forage grasses, flax, nut producing plants and wood producingplants such as Pinus, Prunus, Pseudotsuga, Eucalyptus, Picea, Larix,Thuja, Abies, Khaya, Acer, Lophira, Fagus, Diospyros, Quercus, Tilia,Populus, Platanus, Tectona, Robinia, Ulmus and Juglans.

Plant parts include, in addition to the examples listed above for plantcells, cells, tissues or organs, seed pods, seeds, severed parts such asroots, leaves, flowers, pollen, etc. The term “plant” also includesprogeny of plants which retain the distinguishing characteristics of theparents, such as seed obtained by selfing or crossing, e.g. hybrid seed,hybrid plants and plant parts derived therefrom.

Seed is formed by an embryonic plant enclosed together with storednutrients by a seed coat. It is the product of the ripened ovule ofgymnosperm and angiosperm plants, to the latter of which soybeanbelongs, which occurs after fertilization and to a certain extent growthwithin the mother plant. The seed disclosed herein retains thedistinguishing characteristics of the parents, such as seed obtained byselfing or crossing, e.g. hybrid seed (obtained by crossing two inbredparental lines).

The plant cell, plant part, plant or seed can be from the plantsspecified above as well as from genetically modified homologues of theseplants.

For the case of cotton, the cotton plant cell, plant part, plant or seedcan be from any existing cotton variety. For example, the cotton plantcell can be from a variety useful for growing cotton. The most commonlyused cotton varieties are Gossypium barbadense, G. hirsutum, G. arboreumand G. herbaceum. Further varieties include G. africanum and G.raimondii.

Furthermore, the invention relates to progeny of the plant of theinvention or the seed of the invention.

The present invention also relates to a method of producing a transgenicplant comprising (a) providing a chimeric gene described herein or thevector described herein; and (b) introducing said chimeric gene or saidvector into a plant.

“Introducing” in connection with the present application relates to theplacing of genetic information in a plant cell or plant by artificialmeans. This can be effected by any method known in the art forintroducing RNA or DNA into plant cells, tissues, protoplasts or wholeplants. In addition, “introducing” also comprises introgressing genes asdefined further below.

A number of methods are available to transfer DNA into plant cells.Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of cotton has been described e.g.in U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,863, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,013 and WO2000/71733.

Plants may also be transformed by particle bombardment: Particles ofgold or tungsten are coated with DNA and then shot into young plantcells or plant embryos. This method also allows transformation of plantplastids. Cotton transformation by particle bombardment is reported e.g.in WO 92/15675.

Viral transformation (transduction) may be used for transient or stableexpression of a gene, depending on the nature of the virus genome. Thedesired genetic material is packaged into a suitable plant virus and themodified virus is allowed to infect the plant. The progeny of theinfected plants is virus free and also free of the inserted gene.Suitable methods for viral transformation are described or furtherdetailed e. g. in WO 90/12107, WO 03/052108 or WO 2005/098004.

“Introgressing” means the integration of a gene in a plant's genome bynatural means, i. e. by crossing a plant comprising the chimeric genedescribed herein with a plant not comprising said chimeric gene. Theoffspring can be selected for those comprising the chimeric gene.

Further transformation and introgression protocols can also be found inU.S. Pat. No. 7,172,881.

In a further aspect, the present application discloses a method ofproducing a plant or of strengthening a plant or a part thereof such asa plant cell wall, comprising: introducing a chimeric gene comprising apromoter expressible in plants, the nucleic acid described herein above(i. e. that encoding a protein having cellulose:xyloglucanendotransglucosylase activity), and a transcription termination andpolyadenylation region; or growing the plant described herein or growinga plant from the seed disclosed herein. The chimeric gene introduced maybe the chimeric gene as described herein above including all variationsrelated thereto.

Further disclosed herein is a method of altering at least one fiberproperty in a fiber-producing plant or for strengthening a plantcomprising expressing the chimeric gene described herein or the vectordescribed herein in said fiber-producing plant or plant.

In one example, the fiber property is fiber strength and/or resistanceto enzymatic digestion. In one example, the fiber strength and/orresistance to enzymatic digestion is increased.

In another example, strengthening a plant includes strengthening itsstem, increasing resistance to lodging (e. g. flooding, heavy rain orwild damage) and increasing resistance to infection by pathogens.

In a further example of the method of producing a plant or ofstrengthening a plant described above, the method further comprisesgrowing said plant until seed is produced.

The present invention also relates to a method of producing a proteincomprising culturing the host cell described herein under suitableconditions and isolating the protein produced. Said host cell expressesor over-expresses the protein of the invention havingcellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity as described above.Accordingly, said protein of the invention is produced in and isolatedfrom the host cell. In case that the host cell produces the protein ofthe invention and secretes it to the surrounding media, e. g. due to asuitable signal peptide attached to the protein, isolation denotesseparation of the media comprising the protein from the host cell. Saidmedia may then be the subject of further purification steps (see below).

Suitable conditions for culturing a prokaryotic or eukaryotic host arewell known to the person skilled in the art. For example, suitableconditions for culturing bacteria are growing them under aeration inLuria Bertani (LB) medium. To increase the yield and the solubility ofthe expression product, the medium can be buffered or supplemented withsuitable additives known to enhance or facilitate both. E. coli can becultured from 4 to about 37° C., the exact temperature or sequence oftemperatures depends on the molecule to be over-expressed. In general,the skilled person is also aware that these conditions may have to beadapted to the needs of the host and the requirements of the polypeptideexpressed. In case an inducible promoter controls the nucleic acid ofthe invention in the vector present in the host cell, expression of thepolypeptide can be induced by addition of an appropriate inducing agentSuitable expression protocols and strategies are known to the skilledperson.

Suitable expression protocols for eukaryotic cells are well known to theskilled person and can be retrieved e.g. from Sambrook, 2001.

Suitable media for insect cell culture are e.g. TNM+10% FCS or SF900medium. Insect cells are usually grown at 27° C. as adhesion orsuspension culture.

Methods of isolation of the polypeptide produced are well-known in theart and comprise without limitation method steps such as ammoniumsulphate precipitation, ion exchange chromatography, gel filtrationchromatography (size exclusion chromatography), affinity chromatography,high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), reversed phase HPLC, discgel electrophoresis or immunoprecipitation, see, for example, inSambrook, 2001.

In another aspect, the present application discloses the use of theprotein described herein, the isolated nucleic acid described herein,the chimeric gene described herein or the vector described herein foraltering fiber properties in a fiber-producing plant or forstrengthening a plant.

Also disclosed herein is a method of growing a plant comprising (a1)providing the transgenic plant described herein or produced by themethod of producing a plant described herein; or (a2) introducing achimeric gene described herein in a plant; and (b) growing the plant of(a1) or (a2); and optionally (c) harvesting harvestable parts producedby said plant.

The nucleic acid sequences and amino acid sequences according to theinvention can be used to identify other proteins, such as orthologousproteins or homologous proteins, with HTG activity or, moreparticularly, with CXE activity. Homologous or orthologous sequencesencoding HGT proteins can be identified using methods known in the art.Homologous nucleotide sequence may be identified and isolated byhybridization under stringent conditions using as probes a nucleic acidcomprising the nucleotide sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 5 and 7or part thereof. Other sequences encoding HTG proteins may also beobtained by DNA amplification using oligonucleotides specific for genesencoding HTG as primers, such as but not limited to oligonucleotidescomprising or consisting of about 20 to about 50 consecutive nucleotidesfrom any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 5 and 7 or its complement. Homologousgenes encoding HTG proteins can be identified in silico using BasicLocal Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) homology search with othernucleotide or amino acid sequences. Functionality of the identifiedhomologous genes encoding HTG, and in particular their MXE and CXEactivities can be validated using the methods described herein.

Also disclosed herein is a method of detecting the expression of anucleic acid or protein, comprising (a) providing the plant cell or theplant disclosed herein, wherein said transgene is the nucleic acid orprotein described herein (i. e. that encoding a protein havingcellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity); and (b) detectingthe expression level of the nucleic acid or protein.

The term “expression of nucleic acid or protein” relates to thetranscription and optionally the translation of the transcribable andtranslatable part of the chimeric gene disclosed herein usingappropriate expression control elements that function in plant cells.

“Detecting the expression of the nucleic acid or protein” can beeffected in multiple ways. The protein has cellulose:xyloglucanendotransglucosylase activity. Accordingly, expression may be detectedusing a substrate which can be converted into a visually detectableproduct, wherein said product may be detected by the appropriate meanswhich depend on the color of said product or of the wavelength of thelight emitted by said product. Suitable detection means are disclosed inthe example section. Furthermore, expression of a nucleic acid sequencecan be measured by PCR methods including the one disclosed in Zanoni etal. (2009,) and in Logan, Edwards and Saunders (2009), by sequencingtechniques including that disclosed in the Illumina datasheet “mRNAexpression analysis” (2010) available athttp://www.illumina.com/documents/products/datasheets/datasheet_mrna_expression.pdf,and by hybridization techniques well-known in the art.

Also disclosed herein is a method for producing a cellulosic materialwith improved properties, the method comprising contacting, e. g. in anaqueous medium, in the presence of xyloglucan or xyloglucanoligosaccharide or xyloglucan or xyloglucan oligosaccharide to which anorganic or inorganic molecule is covalently attached, cellulosicmaterial with an effective amount of the protein of the invention.

Improved properties include increased strength or reactivity or otherproperties such as color (e.g. permanent dyeing of clothing, outdoortimber etc.), charge (acidic or basic), unusual paper surfaces e.g. forbanknotes and legal documents, medical substances e.g. antibiotics ordrugs, laboratory reagents e.g. indicator papers that would not lose theindicator during prolonged exposure to water.

The protein of the invention can be used to attach cellulose orcello-oligosaccharides covalently to xyloglucan or xyloglucanoligosaccharides, wherein said xyloglucan or xyloglucan oligosaccharideshave optionally attached thereto, e.g. at the reducing terminus, variousorganic or inorganic compounds, which would augment the value of thecelluloses.

In one example, the cellulosic material is selected from or comprised infabric (textiles such as cotton or linen), paper, cellulose derivativessuch as carboxymethylcellulose or cellulose acetate, packaging such ascardboard, building material (e. g. timber and chipboard), thickeningagents such as those including and derived from xanthan gum, a medicaldressing such as cotton wool and gauzes, cellophane, dialysis tubing andresin for chromatography columns.

For example, for altering the color of a material, the molecule attachedto xyloglucan would be a dye. Such combination could result in apermanent dyeing of e. g. clothing or outdoor timber while achievedunder very mild conditions and with no polluting by-products.

Other properties which can be altered due to attachment of a moleculewith respective properties to xyloglucan within the method of producinga cellulosic material with improved properties include charge (acidic orbasic), unusual paper surfaces e.g. for banknotes and legal documents,medical substances e.g. antibiotics or drugs, laboratory reagents e.g.indicator papers that would not lose the indicator during prolongedexposure to water, and numerous others.

Accordingly, in one example the method for producing a cellulosicmaterial with improved properties includes attaching a molecule havingor conferring a desired property to xyloglucan or xyloglucanoligosaccharides not having such molecule attached, said attachingtaking place prior to contacting said xyloglucan or xyloglucanoligosaccharides with said cellulosic material and the protein of theinvention. The molecule may be organic or inorganic. Attaching organicsubstances to the reducing terminus of a xyloglucan oligosaccharide canbe achieved by the oligosaccharidyl-1-amino-1-deoxyalditol methoddisclosed in WO97/011193.

Further provided is a method for producing a cellulosic material withimproved properties, said method comprising providing a plant accordingto the invention and harvesting the cellulosic material from said plant.

Harvesting the cellulosic material can be harvesting of the plant of theinvention, comprising the cellulosic material, using conventionalmethods. Harvesting the cellulosic material can also be harvesting partsof the plants comprising the cellulosic material of the invention usingconventional methods, such as using standard machine harvesters.

The cellulosic material can further be isolated from the harvestedmaterial, or purified from the harvested material.

Also disclosed is cellulosic material produced by the method forproducing a cellulosic material disclosed herein.

Also disclosed herein is cellulosic material comprising cellulosicmaterial covalently attached to xyloglucan or xyloglucanoligosaccharides via a glycosidic bond. In particular, said cellulosicmaterial comprises cellulose or cello-oligosaccharides linked via abeta-glucosidic bond to xyloglucan or an oligosaccharide thereof.

In one example of said cellulosic material, an organic or inorganicmolecule is covalently attached to said xyloglucan or xyloglucanoligosaccharide as described above. The effect of such modification isdiscussed elsewhere in this application.

Also disclosed herein is a kit comprising (a) a cellulosic material nothaving xyloglucan or xyloglucan oligosaccharide attached thereto and (b)xyloglucan and/or xyloglucan oligosaccharide. The kit is meant toprovide the components to manufacture the cellulosic material of theinvention as described elsewhere. Optionally, the kit may furthercomprise the protein of the invention as described herein.

Further provided is an antibody directed to the protein according to theinvention. An Antibody refers to intact molecules or fragments thereofwhich are capable of binding an epitope of the protein of the invention.Antibodies that bind the protein of the invention can be prepared usingintact polypeptides or fragments containing small peptides of interestfor immunization.

Also provided is a method of producing food or feed, such as oil, meal,grain, starch, flour or protein, or an industrial product such asbiofuel, fiber, industrial chemicals, a pharmaceutical or anutraceutical, said method comprising obtaining the plant or a partthereof according to the invention and preparing the food, feed orindustrial product from the plant or part thereof.

“High stringency conditions” or “high stringency hybridizationconditions” can be provided, for example, by hybridization at 65° C. inan aqueous solution containing 6×SSC (20×SSC contains 3.0 M NaCl, 0.3 MNa-citrate, pH 7.0), 5×Denhardt's (100×Denhardt's contains 2% Ficoll, 2%Polyvinyl pyrollidone, 2% Bovine Serum Albumin), 0.5% sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS), and 20 μg/ml denaturated carrier DNA (single-strandedfish sperm DNA, with an average length of 120-3000 nucleotides) asnon-specific competitor. Following hybridization, high stringencywashing may be done in several steps, with a final wash (about 30 min)at the hybridization temperature in 0.2-0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS.

“Moderate stringency conditions” or “moderate stringency hybridizationconditions” refers to conditions equivalent to hybridization in theabove described solution but at about 60-62° C. Moderate stringencywashing may be done at the hybridization temperature in 1×SSC, 0.1% SDS.

“Low stringency” or “low stringency hybridization conditions” refers toconditions equivalent to hybridization in the above described solutionat about 50-52° C. Low stringency washing may be done at thehybridization temperature in 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS. See also Sambrook et al.(1989) and Sambrook and Russell (2001).

The transformed plant cells and plants disclosed herein or obtained bythe methods described herein may contain, in addition to the chimericgene described above, at least one other chimeric gene comprising anucleic acid encoding an expression product of interest. Examples ofsuch expression product include RNA molecules or proteins, such as forexample an enzyme for resistance to a herbicide. Herbicide-resistantcotton plants are for example glyphosate-tolerant plants, i.e. plantsmade tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate or salts thereof. Plants canbe made tolerant to glyphosate through different means. For example,glyphosate-tolerant plants can be obtained by transforming the plantwith a gene encoding the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphatesynthase (EPSPS). Examples of such EPSPS genes are the AroA gene (mutantCT7) of the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium (Comai et al., 1983,Science 221, 370-371), the CP4 gene of the bacterium Agrobacterium sp.(Barry et al., 1992), the genes encoding a Petunia EPSPS (Shah et al.,1986), a Tomato EPSPS (Gasser et al., 1988), or an Eleusine EPSPS (WO01/66704). It can also be a mutated EPSPS as described in for example EP0837944, WO 00/66746, WO 00/66747 or WO02/26995. Glyphosate-tolerantplants can also be obtained by expressing a gene that encodes aglyphosate oxido-reductase enzyme as described in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,776,760 and 5,463,175. Glyphosate-tolerant plants can also be obtainedby expressing a gene that encodes a glyphosate acetyl transferase enzymeas described in for example WO 02/36782, WO 03/092360, WO 05/012515 andWO 07/024782. Glyphosate-tolerant plants can also be obtained byselecting plants containing naturally-occurring mutations of theabove-mentioned genes, as described in for example WO 01/024615 or WO03/013226. Plants expressing EPSPS genes that confer glyphosatetolerance are described in e.g. U.S. patent application Ser. Nos.11/517,991, 10/739,610, 12/139,408, 12/352,532, 11/312,866, 11/315,678,12/421,292, 11/400,598, 11/651,752, 11/681,285, 11/605,824, 12/468,205,11/760,570, 11/762,526, 11/769,327, 11/769,255, 11/943,801 or12/362,774. Plants comprising other genes that confer glyphosatetolerance, such as decarboxylase genes, are described in e.g. U.S.patent application Ser. Nos. 11/588,811, 11/185,342, 12/364,724,11/185,560 or 12/423,926.

Other herbicide resistant cotton plants are for example plants that aremade tolerant to herbicides inhibiting the enzyme glutamine synthase,such as bialaphos, phosphinothricin or glufosinate. Such plants can beobtained by expressing an enzyme detoxifying the herbicide or a mutantglutamine synthase enzyme that is resistant to inhibition, e.g.described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/760,602. One suchefficient detoxifying enzyme is an enzyme encoding a phosphinothricinacetyltransferase (such as the bar or pat protein from Streptomycesspecies). Plants expressing an exogenous phosphinothricinacetyltransferase are for example described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,561,236;5,648,477; 5,646,024; 5,273,894; 5,637,489; 5,276,268; 5,739,082;5,908,810 and 7,112,665.

Further herbicide-tolerant cotton plants are also plants that are madetolerant to the herbicides inhibiting the enzymehydroxyphenylpyruvatedioxygenase (HPPD). HPPD is an enzyme that catalyzethe reaction in which para-hydroxyphenylpyruvate (HPP) is transformedinto homogentisate. Plants tolerant to HPPD-inhibitors can betransformed with a gene encoding a naturally-occurring resistant HPPDenzyme, or a gene encoding a mutated or chimeric HPPD enzyme asdescribed in WO 96/38567, WO 99/24585, WO 99/24586, WO 2009/144079, WO2002/046387, or U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,044. Tolerance to HPPD-inhibitorscan also be obtained by transforming plants with genes encoding certainenzymes enabling the formation of homogentisate despite the inhibitionof the native HPPD enzyme by the HPPD-inhibitor. Such plants and genesare described in WO 99/34008 and WO 02/36787. Tolerance of plants toHPPD inhibitors can also be improved by transforming plants with a geneencoding an enzyme having prephenate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity inaddition to a gene encoding an HPPD-tolerant enzyme, as described in WO2004/024928. Further, plants can be made more tolerant to HPPD-inhibitorherbicides by adding into their genome a gene encoding an enzyme capableof metabolizing or degrading HPPD inhibitors, such as the CYP450 enzymesshown in WO 2007/103567 and WO 2008/150473.

Still further herbicide resistant cotton plants are plants that are madetolerant to acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors. Known ALS-inhibitorsinclude, for example, sulfonylurea, imidazolinone, triazolopyrimidines,pryimidinyoxy(thio)benzoates, and/or sulfonylaminocarbonyltriazolinoneherbicides. Different mutations in the ALS enzyme (also known asacetohydroxyacid synthase, AHAS) are known to confer tolerance todifferent herbicides and groups of herbicides, as described for examplein Tranel and Wright (2002), but also, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,605,011,5,378,824, 5,141,870, and 5,013,659. The production ofsulfonylurea-tolerant plants and imidazolinone-tolerant plants isdescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,605,011; 5,013,659; 5,141,870; 5,767,361;5,731,180; 5,304,732; 4,761,373; 5,331,107; 5,928,937; and 5,378,824;and international publication WO 96/33270. Other imidazolinone-tolerantplants are also described in for example WO 2004/040012, WO 2004/106529,WO 2005/020673, WO 2005/093093, WO 2006/007373, WO 2006/015376, WO2006/024351, and WO 2006/060634. Further sulfonylurea- andimidazolinone-tolerant plants are also described in for example WO07/024782 and U.S. Patent Application No. 61/288,958.

Other cotton plants tolerant to imidazolinone and/or sulfonylurea can beobtained by induced mutagenesis, selection in cell cultures in thepresence of the herbicide or mutation breeding as described for examplefor soybeans in U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,082, for rice in WO 97/41218, forsugar beet in U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,702 and WO 99/057965, for lettuce inU.S. Pat. No. 5,198,599, or for sunflower in WO 01/065922.

Further expression products of interest confer insect resistance to acotton plant, i.e. resistance to attack by certain target insects. Suchplants can be obtained by genetic transformation, or by selection ofplants containing a mutation imparting such insect resistance.

Insect-resistant plants include any plant containing at least onetransgene comprising a coding sequence encoding:

1) an insecticidal crystal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis or aninsecticidal portion thereof, such as the insecticidal crystal proteinslisted by Crickmore et al. (1998,), updated by Crickmore et al. (2005)at the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin nomenclature, online at:http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/Home/Neil_Crickmore/Bt/), orinsecticidal portions thereof, e.g., proteins of the Cry protein classesCry1Ab, Cry1Ac, Cry1B, Cry1C, Cry1D, Cry1F, Cry2Ab, Cry3Aa, or Cry3Bb orinsecticidal portions thereof (e.g. EP 1999141 and WO 2007/107302), orsuch proteins encoded by synthetic genes as e.g. described in and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/249,016; or2) a crystal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis or a portion thereofwhich is insecticidal in the presence of a second other crystal proteinfrom Bacillus thuringiensis or a portion thereof, such as the binarytoxin made up of the Cry34 and Cry35 crystal proteins (Moellenbeck etal. 2001; Schnepf et al. 2006) or the binary toxin made up of the Cry1Aor Cry1F proteins and the Cry2Aa or Cry2Ab or Cry2Ae proteins (U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/214,022 and EP 08010791.5); or3) a hybrid insecticidal protein comprising parts of differentinsecticidal crystal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis, such as ahybrid of the proteins of 1) above or a hybrid of the proteins of 2)above, e.g., the Cry1A.105 protein produced by corn event MON89034 (WO2007/027777); or4) a protein of any one of 1) to 3) above wherein some, particularly 1to 10, amino acids have been replaced by another amino acid to obtain ahigher insecticidal activity to a target insect species, and/or toexpand the range of target insect species affected, and/or because ofchanges introduced into the encoding DNA during cloning ortransformation, such as the Cry3Bb1 protein in corn events MON863 orMON88017, or the Cry3A protein in corn event MIR604; or5) an insecticidal secreted protein from Bacillus thuringiensis orBacillus cereus, or an insecticidal portion thereof, such as thevegetative insecticidal (VIP) proteins listed at:http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Neil_Crickmore/Bt/vip.html, e.g.,proteins from the VIP3Aa protein class; or6) a secreted protein from Bacillus thuringiensis or Bacillus cereuswhich is insecticidal in the presence of a second secreted protein fromBacillus thuringiensis or B. cereus, such as the binary toxin made up ofthe VIP1A and VIP2A proteins (WO 94/21795); or7) a hybrid insecticidal protein comprising parts from differentsecreted proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis or Bacillus cereus, suchas a hybrid of the proteins in 1) above or a hybrid of the proteins in2) above; or8) a protein of any one of 5) to 7) above wherein some, particularly 1to 10, amino acids have been replaced by another amino acid to obtain ahigher insecticidal activity to a target insect species, and/or toexpand the range of target insect species affected, and/or because ofchanges introduced into the encoding DNA during cloning ortransformation (while still encoding an insecticidal protein), such asthe VIP3Aa protein in cotton event COT102; or9) a secreted protein from Bacillus thuringiensis or Bacillus cereuswhich is insecticidal in the presence of a crystal protein from Bacillusthuringiensis, such as the binary toxin made up of VIP3 and Cry1A orCry1F (U.S. Patent Appl. No. 61/126,083 and 61/195,019), or the binarytoxin made up of the VIP3 protein and the Cry2Aa or Cry2Ab or Cry2Aeproteins (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/214,022 and EP08010791.5);10) a protein of 9) above wherein some, particularly 1 to 10, aminoacids have been replaced by another amino acid to obtain a higherinsecticidal activity to a target insect species, and/or to expand therange of target insect species affected, and/or because of changesintroduced into the encoding DNA during cloning or transformation (whilestill encoding an insecticidal protein).

Also included are insect-resistant transgenic plants comprising acombination of genes encoding the proteins of any one of the aboveclasses 1 to 10. In one embodiment, an insect-resistant plant containsmore than one transgene encoding a protein of any one of the aboveclasses 1 to 10, to expand the range of target insect species affectedwhen using different proteins directed at different target insectspecies, or to delay insect resistance development to the plants byusing different proteins insecticidal to the same target insect speciesbut having a different mode of action, such as binding to differentreceptor binding sites in the insect.

Insect-resistant plants further include plants containing at least onetransgene comprising a sequence producing upon expression adouble-stranded RNA which upon ingestion by a plant insect pest inhibitsthe growth of this insect pest, as described e.g. in WO 2007/080126, WO2006/129204, WO 2007/074405, WO 2007/080127 and WO 2007/035650.

Further additional traits confer tolerance to abiotic stresses. Plantswith such tolerance can be obtained by genetic transformation, or byselection of plants containing a mutation imparting such stressresistance. Particularly useful stress tolerance plants include:

1) plants which contain a transgene capable of reducing the expressionand/or the activity of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) gene in theplant cells or plants as described in WO 00/04173, WO/2006/045633, EP04077984.5, or EP 06009836.5.2) plants which contain a stress tolerance enhancing transgene capableof reducing the expression and/or the activity of the PARG encodinggenes of the plants or plants cells, as described e.g. in WO2004/090140.3) plants which contain a stress tolerance enhancing transgene codingfor a plant-functional enzyme of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotidesalvage synthesis pathway including nicotinamidase, nicotinatephosphoribosyltransferase, nicotinic acid mononucleotide adenyltransferase, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide synthetase or nicotineamide phosphoribosyltransferase as described e.g. in EP 04077624.7, WO2006/133827, PCT/EP07/002433, EP 1999263, or WO 2007/107326.

Plants or plant cultivars (that can be obtained by plant biotechnologymethods such as genetic engineering) which may also be treated accordingto the invention are plants, such as cotton plants, with altered fibercharacteristics. Such plants can be obtained by genetic transformation,or by selection of plants contain a mutation imparting such alteredfiber characteristics and include:

-   a) Plants, such as cotton plants, containing an altered form of    cellulose synthase genes as described in WO 98/00549-   b) Plants, such as cotton plants, containing an altered form of rsw2    or rsw3 homologous nucleic acids as described in WO 2004/053219-   c) Plants, such as cotton plants, with increased expression of    sucrose phosphate synthase as described in WO 01/17333-   d) Plants, such as cotton plants, with increased expression of    sucrose synthase as described in WO 02/45485-   e) Plants, such as cotton plants, wherein the timing of the    plasmodesmatal gating at the basis of the fiber cell is altered,    e.g. through downregulation of fiber-selective β-1,3-glucanase as    described in WO 2005/017157, or as described in EP 08075514.3 or    U.S. Patent Appl. No. 61/128,938-   f) Plants, such as cotton plants, having fibers with altered    reactivity, e.g. through the expression of    N-acetylglucosaminetransferase gene including nodC and chitin    synthase genes as described in WO 2006/136351

The transformed plant cells and plants obtained by the methods describedherein may be further used in breeding procedures well known in the art,such as crossing, selfing, and backcrossing. Breeding programs mayinvolve crossing to generate an F1 (first filial) generation, followedby several generations of selfing (generating F2, F3, etc.). Thebreeding program may also involve backcrossing (BC) steps, whereby theoffspring is backcrossed to one of the parental lines, termed therecurrent parent.

Accordingly, also disclosed herein is a method for producing plantscomprising the chimeric gene disclosed herein comprising the step ofcrossing the cotton plant disclosed herein with another plant or withitself and selecting for offspring comprising said chimeric gene.

The transformed plant cells and plants obtained by the methods disclosedherein may also be further used in subsequent transformation procedures,e. g. to introduce a further chimeric gene.

The plants or seed comprising the chimeric gene disclosed herein orobtained by the methods disclosed herein may further be treated withcotton herbicides such as Diuron, Fluometuron, MSMA, Oxyfluorfen,Prometryn, Trifluralin, Carfentrazone, Clethodim, Fluazifop-butyl,Glyphosate, Norflurazon, Pendimethalin, Pyrithiobac-sodium,Trifloxysulfuron, Tepraloxydim, Glufosinate, Flumioxazin, Thidiazuron;cotton insecticides such as Acephate, Aldicarb, Chlorpyrifos,Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin, Abamectin, Acetamiprid, Emamectin Benzoate,Imidacloprid, Indoxacarb, Lambda-Cyhalothrin, Spinosad, Thiodicarb,Gamma-Cyhalothrin, Spiromesifen, Pyridalyl, Flonicamid, Flubendiamide,Triflumuron, Rynaxypyr, Beta-Cyfluthrin, Spirotetramat, Clothianidin,Thiamethoxam, Thiacloprid, Dinetofuran, Flubendiamide, Cyazypyr,Spinosad, Spinotoram, gamma Cyhalothrin,4-[[(6-Chlorpyridin-3-yl)methyl](2,2-difluorethyl)amino]furan-2(5H)-on,Thiodicarb, Avermectin, Flonicamid, Pyridalyl, Spiromesifen,Sulfoxaflor; and cotton fungicides such as Azoxystrobin, Bixafen,Boscalid, Carbendazim, Chlorothalonil, Copper, Cyproconazole,Difenoconazole, Dimoxystrobin, Epoxiconazole, Fenamidone, Fluazinam,Fluopyram, Fluoxastrobin, Fluxapyroxad, Iprodione, Isopyrazam,Isotianil, Mancozeb, Maneb, Metominostrobin, Penthiopyrad,Picoxystrobin, Propineb, Prothioconazole, Pyraclostrobin, Quintozene,Tebuconazole, Tetraconazole, Thiophanate-methyl, Trifloxystrobin.

The sequence listing contained in the file named “BCS13-2019_ST25.txt”,which is 30 kilobytes (size as measured in Microsoft Windows®), contains8 sequences SEQ ID NO: 1 through SEQ ID NO: 8 is filed herewith byelectronic submission and is incorporated by reference herein.

The figures show:

FIG. 1: Zymogram of native PAGE of extract of MXE activity. Crudeextract (A) or ammonium sulphate precipitate (ASP) (B) was run on nativePAGE. One lane was stained with Coomassie Blue (CB). Three lanes of theelectrophoresed gels were excised and washed twice in 0.3 M citratebuffer (pH 6.3) for 15 min. Enzyme activities were detected byoverlaying the lane with paper impregnated with MLG and XXXG-SR(conjugate of sulphorhodamine and a heptasaccharide of xyloglucan(Xyl3.Glc4)) (M), XyG (xyloglucan) and XXXG-SR (X), or just XXXG-SR (C).Light bands on the dark background indicatepolysaccharide-to-oligosaccharide transglucosylation; in the case of (C)the polysaccharide involved was the cellulose of the paper itself.

FIG. 2: Dot blot paper confirming CXE activity. A) Three test paperstrips were loaded (3 μl each, 8 spots) with a 2-fold dilution series ofASP enzyme in citrate (0.3 M, pH 6.3). The strips were incubated inhumid conditions for 1 h, then dried at room temperature. The stripswere washed in ethanol/formic acid/water (EFW) and photographed. B) Thestrips were washed in 6 M NaOH at 37° C. overnight, rinsed in water,dried, and photographed again. The papers shrank in size during thewash. Circles show the remaining firmly bound endotransglucosylaseproduct attributable to cellulose-to-XXXG transglycosylation. C=CX;M=MXE; X=XET.

FIG. 3: Natural cellulose as donor for HTG. Ground culture cells andmature shoots were washed in 75% EtOH until chlorophyll removed, anddried. A portion of the AIR (alcohol-insoluble residue) was incubated in6 M NaOH at 37° C. overnight, then washed in water to remove the alkali,lyophilized, and stored. Each substrate (10 mg) was rehydratedovernight, and excess liquid was removed prior to assay. The solidsubstrate was mixed with [³H]XXXGol (reduced XXXG (i.e.,Xyl3.Glc3.glucitol) (2 kBq), ASP, and citrate buffer (0.3 M, pH 6.3, 97μl). After 2 h, the reaction was stopped with formic acid (FA) (30 μl),and the solids were washed in water until void of remaining free[³H]XXXGOL. The solids (in 1 ml water) were transferred to scintillationvials and incubated with scintillant overnight before ³H testing. Eachsample tested in triplicate, ±SD shown. * n=1.

FIG. 4: Potential of activities to covalently link cellulosemicrofibrils.

FIG. 5: Corrected radioactivity (cpm for MXE and XET, cpm/6 for CXE) offractions 1-20 containing three endotransglucosylase activities (XET(diagonally striped bars), MXE (black bars), CXE (white bars)) afterisoelectric focusing of ammonium-sulphate-precipitated Equisetumproteins.

FIG. 6: Timescale of XET, MXE and CXE activity of the HTG proteinexpressed in Pichia. XET activity is indicated with diamonds, MXEactivity is indicated with squares, and CXE activity is indicated withtriangles. X-axis: Time (min); Y-axis: radioactivity incorporated (cpm).

FIG. 7: Acceptor substrate-specificity of recombinant HTG in an assay inwhich barley mixed-linkage glucan was used as donor. Percentageincorporation is shown for the potential acceptor substrates (all³H-labeled) (1→4)-β-mannohexaitol (1), cellohexaitol (2),(1→4)-β-galactohexaitol (3), (1→4)-α-galacturonohexaitol (4), XXLGol(5), GGXXXGol (6), XXXGol (7), GXXGol (8), maltohexaitol (9),cellulase-generated heptasaccharides and octasaccharides of MLG (10),(1→4)-β-xylohexaitol (11), lichenase-generated hepta- to decasaccharidesof MLG (12), lichenase-generated octasaccharide of MLG (13),lichenase-generated heptasaccharide of MLG (14), and laminaritetraitol(15). The abbreviated nomenclature of the xyloglucan oligosaccharides(XXLGol, GGXXXGol, XXXGol, GXXGol) is as explained by Fry et al. (1993).

FIG. 8: Alignment of nucleotide (A) and amino acid (B) sequences of thesequences of SEQ ID NOs 1, 5 and 7, and SEQ ID NOs 2, 6 and 8,respectively.

FIG. 9: Timescale of XET, MXE and CXE activity of the HTG proteinexpressed in Pichia in presence and absence of BSA. XET activity withBSA: white squares; XET activity without BSA: black squares; MXEactivity with BSA: white triangles; MXE activity without BSA: blacktriangles; CXE activity with BSA: white circles; CXE activity withoutBSA: black circles. X-axis: Incubation time (h); Y-axis: ³Hradioactivity incorporated (cpm/kBq of substrate supplied).

FIG. 10: HTG-catalysed transglycosylations with [³H]XXXGol asacceptor-substrate and various donor-substrates, including:mixed-linkage glucan (MLG) (crosses); xyloglucan (triangles)water-soluble cellulose acetate (WSCA) (diamonds); plain paper (PP)(black squares); alkali-pretreated paper (AP) (black circles);alkali-pretreated paper+bovine serum albumin (AP+BSA) (white circles),plain paper+bovine serum albumin (PP+BSA) (white squares). X-axis:Incubation time (h); Y-axis: ³H radioactivity incorporated (Bq/kBqsupplied).

FIG. 11: Transglycosylation with [³H]XXXGol (black symbols) or[³H]cellotetraitol (GGGGol) (white symbols) as acceptors, and withvarious donor substrates, including alkali-pretreated paper+BSA (AP+BSA)(diamonds; black diamonds with XXXGol, white diamonds with GGGGol),mixed-linkage glucan (MLG) (triangles; black triangles with XXXGol,white triangles with GGGGol) and xyloglucan (circles; black circles withXXXGol, white circles with GGGGol). X-axis: Incubation time (h); Y-axis:³H radioactivity incorporated (Bq/kBq supplied).

FIG. 12: HTG-catalysed transglycosylation rates with MLG (gray bars) orxyloglucan (black bars) as donor-substrate and various³H-oligosaccharides as potential acceptors. The reaction rate withXXXGol is set at 100%. A, B, and C represent three independentexperiments. Experiments B and C utilised affinity-column-purified HTG.In Experiment C, only MLG was used as donor. 1: XXXGol, 2: GXXGol; 3:GGXXXGol; 4: XXLGol; 5: XLLGol; 6: Cell4-ol; 7: Man6-ol; 8: Xyl6-ol; 9:MLGO-ol A; 10: MLGO-ol B; 11: MLGO-ol C; 12: Cell6-ol; 13: MLGO-ol D;14: MLGO-ol E; 15: MLGO-ol F; 16: Lam4-ol; 17: Gal6-ol; 18: GalA6-ol;19: Malt6-ol. MLGO-ols A-F were not individually identified, but arehepta- to decasaccharides from barley-MLG digested with lichenase (A-C)or cellulose (D-F).

Throughout the present application, reference is made to the followingsequences:

SEQ ID NO: 1: nucleotide sequence of Equisetum fluviatile HTGSEQ ID NO: 2: amino acid sequence of protein encoded by SEQ ID NO: 1SEQ ID NO: 3: nucleotide sequence of HTG fusion protein used forexpression in Pichia pastorisSEQ ID NO: 4: amino acid sequence of protein encoded by SEQ ID NO: 3SEQ ID NO: 5: nucleotide sequence of Equisetum hyemale HTGSEQ ID NO: 6: amino acid sequence of protein encoded by SEQ ID NO: 5SEQ ID NO: 7: nucleotide sequence of Equisetum diffusum HTGSEQ ID NO: 8: amino acid sequence of protein encoded by SEQ ID NO: 7

The examples illustrate the invention

EXAMPLE 1 Materials and Methods 1.1 General

Unless stated otherwise, the cloning steps carried out, such as, forexample, restriction cleavages, agarose gel electrophoresis,purification of DNA fragments, linking DNA fragments, transformation ofbacterial or yeast cells, growing bacteria or yeast and sequenceanalysis of recombinant DNA, are carried out as described by Sambrook(2000). The sequencing of recombinant DNA molecules is carried out usingABI laser fluorescence DNA sequencer following the method of Sanger.

1.2 Extraction of Enzymes from Plant Material

Crude enzyme mixtures were extracted from fresh plant tissue in CaCl₂(10 mM), succinic acid (0.3 M) and ascorbic acid (20 mM), made fresh topH 5.5. Polyclar AT (3% w/v) was added to complex with phenolics. Freshtissue was homogenized in a food blender with 5 ml of the extractantabove per gram of fresh weight tissue. The tissue and extractant werestirred on ice for 2.5 h. The extract was filtered through two layers ofMiracloth and centrifuged in a Sorvall Evolution RC Centrifuge (10 min,10,000 rpm, 4° C.). The supernatant was collected and aliquotted, thenfrozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80° C.

1.3 Rotofor Isoelectric Focusing (IEF)

A Bio-Rad Rotofor Cell was assembled and prepared according to themanufacturer's manual. The Rotofor was powered by a BioRad PowerPac HV.Ampholytes were mixed with water and either a marker mixture containingphycocyanin, hemoglobins A and C, and cytochrome c, or a dialysedprotein sample. The separation was conducted at 10 W constant poweruntil the voltage stabilized, and fractions were collected according tothe manufacturer's methods. A Sartorius PB-11 pH meter was used tomeasure the pH of the fractions. Transglucosylase activity was alsoassayed.

1.4 Fluorescent Transglucosylation Assay Preparation of the Assay Papers

Dot-blot, or test, papers were made following Fry 1997. Test papers weremade with Whatman 1CHR chromatography paper. XET-test paper was made bydipping through 1.0% XyG, drying, then dipping through 5 μM XXXG-SR (aconjugate of XXXG and sulphorhodamine (SR)) in 75% acetone or 75%ethanol. Another paper was dipped through 1.0% MLG, dried, then XXXG-SRto make MXE-test paper. Control paper was made, containing nopolysaccharide donor substrate other than the paper itself, includingthe acceptor substrate. The final acceptor substrate concentration forall test papers was ˜125 pmol/cm².

Test Paper Assay

Test papers, cut to size, were used in two ways: either enzyme solutionswere applied to the papers as small dots (dot blot assay), or the paperswere applied in close contact with native PAGE-gels (zymogram assay).The assay was incubated in a humid environment between two sealed glassplates. The papers were then dried at room temperature and washed inethanol:FA:water (EFW) 1:1:1 for one hour. The strips were dried,pressed under weight overnight, and photographed using a UVP MultiDoc-It Digital Imaging System. Positive transglucosylation was evidentas fluorescence when excited under ultraviolet light at 254 nm.

Fluorescent Dot-Blot Assay

Apply 3-μl aliquots of active enzyme solution [typically in succinatebuffer, pH 5.5, containing 10 mM CaCl₂] as spots (9 mm centre-to-centrespacing, i.e., in 96-well plate format) to the dry test-paper.

Quickly sandwich the paper between 2 sheets of polythene or glass, pressflat with a weight (telephone directory) and incubate at roomtemperature for 1-24 h. The spots of enzyme should remain moist. Toachieve this it is helpful to place spots of enzyme solution (or bufferblanks) over the whole area of the paper, without leaving margins.

Allow to dry in open air, then wash in a polythene sandwich boxcontaining

-   -   either ethanol:90% formic acid:water (EFW) 1:1:1    -   or 10% aq formic acid water        with gentle rocking for one hour.

If there is any question that XET or MXE products may also have beenformed (though no appropriate donor substrates for these activities hadbeen deliberately added), it might be helpful to wash the paper in 6 MNaOH (with very gentle rocking, as the paper than becomes fragile)

Thoroughly rinse in tap-water.

Dry.

View under UV light (254 nm or 310 nm) or green laser light, and recordorange fluorescent spots of CXE reaction product.

1.5 Cellulose:Xyloglucan Endotransglucosylase (CXE) Assays

Whatman 1CHR chromatography paper (10-35 mg; pre-treated*) was incubatedwith an enzyme extract or fraction, [³H]XXXGol (2 kBq), and citratebuffer (pH 6.3, final volume 100 μl) for a designated time, typically0-24 hours. The reaction was stopped by the addition of 90% formic acid(30 μl), then the paper was washed by repeated additions of water,centrifugation, and removal of the supernatant, until the supernatant nolonger contained radioactivity. The cellulose usually required about sixwashes to become free of soluble radioactivity. The remaining cellulosewas suspended in 0.5 ml of water, transferred to a scintillation vialwith 5 ml of water-miscible scintillant, and assayed for radioactivityby scintillation counting.

*Pre-Treatment of Paper:

Add 3 g paper to 45 ml 6M NaOH, incubate at 37° C. overnight with gentleagitation, wash in water until almost neutral, then with succinatebuffer (pH 5.5), then with more water; finally, dry the paper.

1.6 Native PAGE

Native polyacrylamide gels were made similar to SDS PAGE, but with a fewdifferences. The stacking gel was made to 4.3% acrylamide withtris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) (67 mM, pH 6.7 with H₃PO₄). Theresolving gel concentration was 7.5% acrylamide with Tris (376 mM, pH8.9). Running buffer contained Tris (5 mM) and glycine (38 mM). Gelswere electrophoresed at 6° C. for 25 min at 20 mA, then 3 h at 40 mA.

1.7 Dissolution of Cellulose in DMA/LiCl

This procedure was modified from Gurjanov et al. (2008). Molecular sieve(4 Å) was activated (100° C., 3 h). Dimethylacetamide (DMA) was driedover the sieve for at least 5 d. LiCl (8 g) was dried (180° C., 4 h),and dissolved in dry DMA (100 ml). Pieces of Whatman 1CHR were hydratedin water for 1 h, then filtered on nylon mesh. The paper pieces werewashed in acetone, then incubated in acetone for 1 h. The pieces wereagain filtered out using nylon mesh, and washed in DMA, and incubatedovernight in dry DMA. The DMA was removed and replaced with 8% LiCl inDMA, so that the paper was 1% (w/v). The paper was dissolved by stirringat room temperature. An equal volume of dry DMA was added to reduce theviscosity of the cellulose solution. The solution was slowly added by aperistaltic pump to rapidly stirring 6 M NaOH, where the celluloseprecipitated, but hemicelluloses from the paper were expected to remainin solution.

EXAMPLE 2 Cellulose as a Donor Substrate for Mxe

During a search for enzymes with transglucosylase, in particular MXE(MLG:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase) and XET (xyloglucanendotransglucosylase) activity, enzymes from Equisetum fluviatile whichwere partially purified using ammonium sulphate precipitation andisoelectric focusing (Rotofor) were shown to exert MXE activity and/orXET activity. In a negative control on a paper strip treated withXXXG-SR (a sulphorhodamine conjugate of XXXG (heptasaccharide ofxyloglucan)) but with no added polysaccharide donor substrate noresidual fluorescence indicating enzymatic activity was expected (FIG.1). However, a band of apparent transglucosylase activity was mirroredon all three XET (xyloglucan endotransglucosylase), MXE, and controltest papers. As cellulose was the only known polysaccharide present inthe controls, the possibility of β-(1→4)-glucan to act as a donorsubstrate in a transglucosylation reaction was investigated.

Test Papers Impregnated with XXXG-SR

First, the apparent transglucosylation product formation with no (otherthan paper) donor substrate observation was repeated in a slightlydifferent experiment. Partially purified enzyme, rich in MXE and XETactivity, was applied as a dilution series to three test papers,impregnated with MLG (mixed-linkage 1,3;1,4-β-D-glucan), XyG(xyloglucan), or no added polysaccharide and XXXG-SR. The papers weremaintained in a humid environment for 1 h, then washed free of XXXG-SR,and photographed under UV light to show fluorescent transglucosylationproduct (FIG. 2a ). The three papers were then incubated in 6 M NaOH toremove hemicelluloses from the paper and photographed again (FIG. 2 b).

The initial observation that paper alone, with no added donor substrate,can be a substrate for a transglucosylation was indeed replicated here.The three test papers all show transglucosylation product, as seen bythe fluorescent spots, even when the enzyme is diluted 16-fold inbuffer. Hemicelluloses, including MXE and XET products, would have beenwashed out in 6 M NaOH. As expected, the MXE and XET test strips havesignificantly less product, possibly none, remaining on the paper. Thecontrol paper retains product after the NaOH wash, although lessremains. Cellulose and some mannans do not dissolve in aqueous NaOH(Moreira and Filho, 2008), and were likely candidates for the donorsubstrate.

Whatman 1CHR chromatography paper was used. It is made from cotton, butno information about the treatment of the material in the process ofmaking the paper could be obtained. The most abundant polysaccharidepresent which could donate the energy required for a transglycosylationreaction was undoubtedly cellulose. Other polysaccharides as donorsubstrates were excluded after analysis by TFA and Driselase® (a fungalenzyme preparation containing polysaccharide exo- and endo-hydrolases,including cellulase, pectinase, beta-xylanase and beta-mannanase)hydrolysis.

Overall, both TFA and Driselase hydrolysis showed that Whatman 1CHR iscomposed mostly of glucose, most likely from cellulose. TFA(trifluoroacetic acid) hydrolysis also showed traces of xylose.Similarly, Driselase® digestion produced xylose as the most abundantsugar after glucose and cellobiose. Also, the digestion did not showtraces of isoprimeverose, indicating an absence of XyG. Some of theglycoproteins comprising the Driselase® mix autolyse during theincubation, producing traces of glucose and mannose.

Cellulose:Xyloglucan Endotransglucosylase Radioactive Assays

To assay the new transglucosylase activity with cellulose as the donorsubstrate, tentatively termed ‘CXE’, the radioactive acceptor [³H]XXXGol(reduced XXXG, Xyl3.Glc3.glucitol) was used.

Natural Cellulose as Donor

To determine whether this activity was relevant to the growth ofEquisetum plants, plant material was used as a potential donorsubstrate. First, alcohol-insoluble residue (AIR) of callus culturecells and mature plant stems was prepared. The residue was incubated in6 M NaOH to remove hemicelluloses, some of which would also be donorsubstrates. AIR and NaOH-washed residue were tested as potential donorsubstrates (FIG. 3).

As was shown previously, Whatman paper was able to be a donor substratefor a transglucosylation reaction. Culture cells are rich in XyG butlack MLG (FIG. 1), and were expected to supply the donor substrate forXET. Mature shoots, rich in both MLG and XyG, contained the substratesfor MXE, XET, and CXE. Interestingly, though, all samples washed in NaOHincorporated more acceptor substrate than unwashed paper or AIR. If 6 MNaOH removes all hemicelluloses covering the cellulose microfibrils, andif it can reduce the crystallinity of the microfibrils, it is possiblethat cellulose was a better substrate for the dominant transglucosylasethan any other substrate.

Cellulose and CXE Product Solubilization and Reconstitution

It has been proposed that hemicelluloses may be trapped within amorphousregions of cellulose microfibrils (Rose and Bennet 1999). Such ‘trapped’hemicelluloses may be more tightly connected to cellulose, remainingbound to microfibrils in warm alkali. One could argue that thesehypothetical hemicelluloses were the true donor substrate for theobserved transglycosylation with paper.

Another method of confirming that [³H]XXXGol was covalently linked tocellulose was to dissolve the cellulosic product. If cellulosemicrofibrils were reconstituted in alkali, hemicelluloses would nolonger be trapped within a microfibril and would remain soluble.

Cellulose was solubilized using lithium chloride (LiCl) indimethylacetamide (DMA). A solution of 8% LiCl in DMA dissolved CXEproduct. The viscous solution was slowly transferred to a large volumeof 6 M NaOH, where the cellulose re-precipitated. The solid cellulosewas separated from the supernatant, and the radioactive product wasmonitored in each fraction (Table 1).

TABLE 1 Reconstitution of CXE product Soluble in 6M NaOH Precipitatedcellulose 6500 cpm 14000 cpm

CXE product (40 mg, produced using gel-permeation chromatography) wassoaked in water for 1 h, followed by solvent exchange to acetone. Thepaper was soaked in acetone for 1 h, then exchanged for DMA freed of H₂O(over Sigma molecular sieve 4 Å for 5 d), and rotated for 16 h. The DMAwas removed, and the CXE product was incubated in dry DMA (4 ml) with 8%(w/v) LiCl for 16 h. An additional 4 ml of DMA was then added to reduceviscosity. The solution of cellulose was slowly added to stirring 6 MNaOH (80 ml) through a peristaltic pump at the rate of 3.2 ml/h. Theresultant mixture was stirred for 48 h. A portion of the mixture wasremoved and centrifuged. The supernatant was separated from theprecipitants; both were neutralized with HOAc and scintillation counted.The cpm of the total supernatant and the total precipitates is reported.

Because much of the ³H product precipitated, cellulose might have indeedbeen the true substrate for the transglucosylation reaction with paper.The majority of ³H followed the expected pattern of celluloseprecipitation in 6 M NaOH after dissolution in LiCl and DMA. While themeasured ratio of tritium in the precipitate to tritium in thesupernatant was 2.2:1, this ratio might have been higher still on a Bqbasis since solid particles are counted with a lower efficiency than asolution.

The radioactivity that remained in solution might have been breakdownproducts of XXXGol, or could have been short pieces of β-(1→4)-glucanattached to XXXGol with increased solubility because of the XGO.

In summary, CXE product dissolved by LiCl in DMA precipitated uponreconstitution of the cellulose in 6 M NaOH, indicating that thetransglucosylation product was not a hemicellulose.

CXE is an Activity of Partially Purified HTG

It was shown that multiple proteins in ammonium sulphate precipitatefractions of Equisetum were capable of transglucosylation, some of themdisplaying XET activity, and at least one other enzyme, MXE, capable ofusing either MLG or XyG as a donor substrate. Partially purifiedfractions of Equisetum extract obtained using isoelectric focusing(Rotofor) and containing the two enzyme activities MXE and XET weretested for their ability to use cellulose as a donor substrate (Table2).

TABLE 2 CXE activity from partially purified HTG Enzyme Product formed(cpm) pp MXE 1825 pp XET 18 ASP 1217 buffer only 13

Partially purified (pp) MXE, pp XET, ASP, or buffer only (0.3 M citrate,pH 6.3) was incubated with [³H]XXXGol (2 kBq), citrate buffer (up to 100μl), and 10 mg of Whatman 1CHR paper (untreated) for 3.3 h. The reactionwas stopped with FA (30 μl), and unused reactant was washed out withwater. The paper (in 5 ml water) was incubated in scintillant andassayed for ³H.

The partially purified HTG fraction contained high levels of CXEactivity, but the fraction with XET activity only did not use celluloseas a donor substrate. While the MXE fraction was not one pure protein,it contained only a few and was highly enriched in one protein. Inanother experiment, a series of Rotofor-purified fractions containingMXE activity were tested for CXE activity, and patterns of high CXEactivity directly correlated with patterns of high MXE and XET activity(FIG. 5). This enzyme may be a relatively indiscriminatetransglucosylase, able to use β-(1→4)-glucans irrespective ofside-chains or other backbone linkages.

Summary of MXE Activity Using Various Donor and Acceptor Substrates

The partially purified MXE fraction was able to use cellulose, MLG, orXyG as donor substrates with many acceptor substrates (Table 3). WhileMLG was a better donor substrate than XyG, direct comparison of activityrates with cellulose as a donor substrate was difficult. Theconcentration of a polysaccharide in solution, such as MLG or XyG,cannot be compared with a similar concentration of a solid in water. Inaddition, tritium embedded in or on a solid substrate such as cellulosewas counted with lower efficiency than tritium in solution, reducing theability to detect CXE product. Therefore, MXE and XET activity can bedirectly compared, but only roughly compared with CXE activity.

TABLE 3 Summary of MXE activity using various donor and acceptorsubstrates Relative reaction rate with the acceptor of: Donor XXXGolMLGOs Cello₆ol XXLGol XLLGol XXFG XyG +++ + + + + MLG ++++ + + ++ + +Cellu- ++ lose Lichen- ± an Lami- − narin Mannan − GM ± (abbreviations:GM = glucomannan, XyG = xyloglucan, MLGO = mixed-linkage glucanoligosaccharide, Cello6ol = cellohexaitol, XXFG = nonasaccharide ofxyloglucan having composition Gucose4.Xylose3.Galactose1.Fucosel)

CXE Activity

A multitude of observations lead to the confirmation ofcellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity.

If the same xyloglucan molecule can be attached to two neighbouringcellulose microfibrils, the microfibrils themselves could becomecovalently attached through the XyG intermediate (FIG. 4). A covalentlylinked cellulose network could be stronger than a hydrogen bondednetwork.

EXAMPLE 3 Tracking and Sequencing of Genes Encoding Htg Proteins withCxe Activity

RNA was prepared from a mature shoot of an E. fluviatile individualusing Trizol reagent (Invitrogen). cDNA was prepared with an EvrogenMint-Universal cDNA synthesis kit, normalized with an Evrogen Trimmerkit and sequenced using 454 sequencing technology. Raw data wereassembled into contigs and isotigs using Roche proprietary Newblerassembler version 2.5.

In order to identify the protein(s) having CXE activity in Equisetum,the following approach was followed:

HTG was purified from a crude E. fluviatile extract by four sequentialtechniques: differential ammonium sulphate precipitation, gel-permeationchromatography, lectin affinity-chromatography and isoelectric focusing.The resultant sample was separated by SDS PAGE from which a singlepredominant ˜30 kDa band was cut. The sample was digested with trypsinand analysed by MALDI-ToF and LC-MS.

To identify target genes, the Equisetum transcriptome was translated andthe inferred proteins were subjected to in silico trypsin digestion.From the ˜30 kDa fraction prepared from the partially purified IEFfraction, two isotigs which had the highest scoring were partial genesequences of XTH homologous proteins. The full length sequence of thetwo candidate genes was identified by the use of 5′ and 3′ RACE resultsshowed that these were two parts of the same full-length gene. Theprotein had a predicted pl of 4.66 and a predicted mass of 29.5 kDa. Thecoding sequence is shown in SEQ ID NO: 1, and the sequence of theencoded protein in SEQ ID NO: 2. It is predicted that amino acids 1-21of SEQ ID NO: 2 correspond to the signal peptide, and that amino acids22-280 correspond to the mature protein, and thus that nts 1-63 of SEQID NO: 1 encode the signal peptide, and that nts 64-840 encode themature protein.

The sequences of SEQ ID NOs 1 and 2 were used to blast a publicallyavailable sequence database. Two homologous genes were found, one fromEquisetum hyemale (SEQ ID NO: 5 for the coding sequence, having 83%sequence identity to the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, and SEQ IDNO: 6 for the encoded protein having 75% sequence identity to the aminoacid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2), and one from Equisetum diffusum (SEQ IDNO: 7 for the coding sequence, having 94% sequence identity to thenucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, and SEQ ID NO: 8 for the encodedprotein having 91% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQID NO: 2). An alignment of the nucleotide sequences and of the aminoacid sequences of the Equisetum HTG proteins is shown in FIG. 8. It ispredicted that amino acids 1 to 25 of SEQ ID NO: 6 correspond to thesignal peptide, and amino acids 26 to 283 to the mature protein, andthat amino acids 1 to 28 of SEQ ID NO: 8 correspond to the signalpeptide, and amino acids 29 to 287 to the mature protein. Thus, nt 1-75of SEQ ID NO: 5 encode the signal peptide, and nt 76-849 of SEQ ID NO: 5encode the mature protein, and nt 1-84 of SEQ ID NO: 7 encode the signalpeptide and nt 85-861 of SEQ ID NO: 7 encode the mature protein. Thepredicted mature protein, i.e. amino acids 26 to 283, of SEQ ID NO: 6have 79% sequence identity to the predicted mature protein, i.e. aminoacids 22-280, of SEQ ID NO: 2, whereas the predicted mature protein,i.e. amino acids 29 to 287, of SEQ ID NO: 8 have 94% sequence identityto the mature protein, i.e. amino acids 22-280, of SEQ ID NO: 2.

EXAMPLE 4 Mxe, Xet and Cxe Activity of Recombinant Htg Expressed inPichia

The mature HTG protein of Equisetum fluviatile (amino acids 22 to 280 ofSEQ ID NO: 2) was expressed from the pPICZαA vector following insertion,by transformation into Pichia pastoris (SMD1168H) as fusion protein withan α-factor signal sequence at the N-terminus and a c-myc epitope andpolyhistidine tag at the C-terminus. The coding sequence of theexpressed fusion protein is shown in SEQ ID NO: 3, and the encodedprotein in SEQ ID NO: 4. Of SEQ ID NO: 4, amino acids 1-89 correspond tothe α-factor signal sequence, amino acids 92-350 correspond to themature HTG protein, amino acids 353-362 to the c-myc epitope, and aminoacids 368-373 to the polyhistidine tag.

Transformed Pichia cells expressing the HTG fusion protein were grown inliquid growth medium (90% (v/v) low salt LB, 1% (w/v) glycerol, 0.00004%(w/v) biotin, 100 μg ml⁻¹ zeocin). Expression was stimulated bycentrifugation and resuspension of the culture in expression medium(identical to growth medium but with glycerol replaced with 10% (v/v)methanol). After 24 h the culture medium was harvested and assayed forendotransglucosylase activies.

XET and MXE Assay

XET activity was assayed using a reaction mixture consisting 10 μlPichia-secreted enzyme extract, 1 kBq [3H]XXXGol (dried to give zerovolume) and 10 μl 1% donor xyloglucan (XyG) polysaccharide. Donor,enzyme and acceptor components were in 50 mM MES buffer, pH 6.0. Thereaction mixture was incubated for 16 hour at room temperature. Thereaction was stopped by addition of 50 μl of 50% (w/v) formic acid. Eachsample was loaded onto Whatman 3 MM filter paper, dried and then washedthoroughly with free-flowing water to remove unreacted [3H]XXXGol. Timetaken for removal of excess [3H]XXXGol was determined by assaying ablank square of paper, washed in the same conditions as those containingthe acceptor oligosaccharide, producing levels of radioactivityequivalent to background.

Each paper square was air-dried, incubated with scintillant (2 ml) andassayed for radioactivity twice for 5 minutes. Enzyme controls involvedthe addition of formic acid prior to the addition of enzyme to producean environment in which it is unable to function.

The MXE activity assay differs from the XET assay by the use of 1% MLGas the donor polysaccharide instead of XyG.

CXE Assay

To 1 kBq dried [3H]XXXGol, 33 μl enzyme extract (in 50 mM MES; pH 6.0)was mixed thoroughly and added to 10 mg of pre-treated dry Whatman 1CHRpaper and incubated at room temperature for up to 24 hours. The reactionwas stopped by the addition of 300 μl 10% (w/v) formic acid beforerepeated washing for 8-16 hours to remove unreacted [3H]XXXGol.Following the final washing and removal of excess water, cellulose wascollected in 400 μl water+4 ml water-miscible scintillant andtransferred to a scintillation vial prior to assaying for radioactivity.

Results

XET, MXE and CXE activities of 10 μl of the recombinantly-expressedprotein solution after incubation of 1 hour and 3 hours are shown inTable 4.

TABLE 4 XET (Tamarind xyloglucan (Tx) used as donor), MXE (MLG used asdonor) and CXE (cellulose used as donor) activity of recombinantlyexpressed HTG protein Activity Inc time Acceptor Enzyme Donor cpm (i)cpm (ii) cpm (av) Control 1 h Blank Blank Blank 12.60 11.00 11.80 XET 1h [³H]XXXGol HTG Pichia Tx 1592.00 1594.60 1593.30 MXE 1 h [³H]XXXGolHTG Pichia MLG 2143.01 2097.21 2120.11 Control 1 h [³H]XXXGol HTG PichiaControl 20.40 25.60 23.00 Control 3 h Blank Blank Blank 12.60 11.0011.80 XET 3 h [³H]XXXGol HTG Pichia Tx 2267.63 2256.43 2262.03 MXE 3 h[³H]XXXGol HTG Pichia MLG 3141.65 3100.45 3121.05 Control 3 h [³H]XXXGolHTG Pichia Control 14.00 14.00 14.00 Control 1 h Blank Blank Blank 3.512.91 3.21 CXE 1 h [³H]XXXGol HTG Pichia Cellulose 226.85 233.70 230.27Control 3 h Blank Blank Blank 3.51 2.91 3.21 CXE 3 h [³H]XXXGol HTGPichia Cellulose 549.28 559.70 554.49

To determine the initial rates of MXE, XET and CXE activity of the HTGprotein expressed in Pichia, MXE, XET and CXE assays were performedduring 16 hours and activity was measured at several time points.

The results of the timescale in shown in FIG. 6. Initial rates weredetermined from the timescale and are shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5 Initial rates of the XET, MXE and CXE activities of the HTGprotein expressed in Pichia XET 43 cpm/min MXE 112 cpm/min CXE 11.7cpm/min

Tables 4 and 5, and FIG. 6 show that the recombinantly expressedEquisetum HTG protein has MXE and XET activity, as well as a significantCXE activity.

The CXE, MXE and XET activities of the HTG protein expressed in Pichiawere also tested in the presence of BSA in the reaction mixture.

Briefly, Whatman No. 1 paper pieces (each 2.0×1.15 cm), were pre-treatedwith 6 M NaOH (containing 1% w/v NaBH₄) at room temp overnight, thenwashed in running tap-water, followed by 1% acetic acid and de-ionisedwater, and finally dried.

Substrate mixture comprised (final concentrations):

-   -   [3H]XXXGol 50 kBq/ml (specific activity 900 MBq/μmol)    -   23 mM citrate (Na⁺), pH 6.3    -   32.4% (v/v) spent medium from HTG-expressing Pichia line.    -   0 or 0.11% w/v BSA    -   and a donor substrate polysaccharide as detailed below.

For the CXE assay, 20 μl (=1.00 kBq) of the mixture (with no addedpolysaccharide) was applied to a dried paper (mean dry weight ofpaper=18.6 mg), the vial was capped tightly, and incubation wasconducted at 20° C. At desired time-points, the reaction was stopped byaddition of formic acid to 20% v/v. The paper pieces were then washed inrunning tap-water, dried, and assayed for incorporated radioactivity byscintillation counting.

For the MXE or XET assays, 20 μl (=1.00 kBq) of the reaction mixture,supplemented with 0.5% (w/v; final concentration) barley mixed-linkage3-glucan or tamarind xyloglucan respectively, was incubated as freesolution at 20° C. At intervals the reaction was stopped by addition ofNaOH to 0.1 M. The mixtures were later slightly acidified with aceticacid, and dried onto Whatman No. 3 filter paper; the paper was thenwashed overnight in running tap-water, dried, and assayed forradioactivity by scintillation counting.

Time-course graphs are shown in FIG. 9, and reaction rates are shown inTable 6 (calculated as cpm ³H incorporated into polysaccharide, per kBqof acceptor substrate supplied, per hour of incubation).

BSA strongly promoted the CXE reaction, probably by preventing the HTGprotein binding irreversibly to the paper surface; BSA had relativelylittle effect on the MXE and XET rates.

According to the +BSA data, the rates are in the ratioMXE:CXE:XET=100:38.4:38.2.

According to the −BSA data, the rates are in the ratioMXE:CXE:XET=100:2.3:39.1.

Thus, the HTG is a highly CXE-active enzyme.

TABLE 6 Mean reaction rates for the three enzyme activities ofPichia-expressed HTG under conditions made as directly comparable asfeasible CXE CXE MXE MXE XET XET parameter −BSA +BSA −BSA +BSA −BSA +BSAmean rate 0.88 17.20 38.65 44.85 15.11 17.14 (cpm/kBq/h) rate relative1.96 38.36 86.17 100.00 33.69 38.21 (%) to MXE + BSA rate relative 2.2744.51 100.00 116.05 39.10 44.35 (%) to MXE − BSA

Acceptor Substrate Specificity of the Recombinant HTG

Acceptor substrate specificity of the recombinant HTG was tested inassays (in absence of BSA) using barley mixed-linkage glucan (BMLG) asdonor. The enzyme used was recombinant HTG enzyme which wasaffinity-purified using the his-tag. All data points are the correctedmeans of three independent reactions.

For acceptor substrates showing relatively low affinity for paper, theconventional paper washing method was employed (running tap-water,overnight). For those acceptors exhibiting high affinity for paper(namely cellohexaitol, mannohexaitol, xylohexaitol, and the MLGoligosaccharides), a glass fibre method was employed in which thereaction products were dried onto pre-baked Whatman GF/A glass fibrepaper and then washed in 75% ethanol.

The results are shown in FIG. 7. The only acceptor substrates thatrecombinant HTG was able to incorporate to any significant degree werexyloglucan oligosaccharides. In a further experiment, acceptor substratespecificity was determined for mixed-linkage glucan and xyloglucan asdonor. The results are shown in FIG. 12. It was observed thatnon-galactosylated XGOs were preferred. The fact that the HTG proteinused GXXGol equally well or better than XXXGol distinguishes it fromconventional XETs which require xylosylation at subsite position+1; instark contrast, HTG appears to prefer un-xylosylated Glc residues there.However, despite this preference for non-xylosylation at +1, thecomplete inability to utilise GGXXXGol indicates that xylosylation at +2is a necessity for the HTG protein's activity. This requirement forxylosylation at +2 is consistent with the inability of the protein toutilise related non-xylosylated oligosaccharides such as cellohexaitoland the various MLG oligosaccharides.

Given that donor substrate specificity results indicate the HTG proteinfavours MLG as a donor substrate over xylolgucan, these results confirmthat it is a predominant hetero-transglucanase. While it is able tocatalyse XET activity (xyloglucan-to-xyloglucan; FIG. 6), it appearscompletely unable to catalyse MLG-MLG endotransglycosylation at all, asshown in FIG. 7 by the inability to utilise MLG oligosaccharides.

It is likely that the HTG protein has similar acceptor substratespecificity when cellulose is used as donor.

This makes HTG the first plant enzyme whose preferred reaction ishetero-endotransglycosylation, and the first endotranglycosylase thatfavours MLG as a substrate.

Acceptor substrate specificity was also tested for the different donorsubstrates alkali-treated paper, mixed-linkage glucan, and xyloglucan.It was observed that XXXGol was a strong acceptor with alkali-treatedpaper and with mixed-linkage glucan as donor, but that thetransglycosylation with GGGGol was much less efficient (see FIG. 11).

Substrate Specificity of the Recombinant HTG for Different CellulosicSubstrates

HTG-catalysed transglycosylation with [3H]XXXGol as acceptor-substrateand various donor-substrates was tested in presence and absence of BSA,and with mixed-linkage glucan as control (see FIG. 10). It was observedthat, under optimized conditions, the HTG had an XET:MXE activity ratioof ˜1:7. It was also observed that water-soluble cellulose acetate wasonly a weak donor, but that HTG had remarkable CXE activity on(insoluble) cellulose. Over 94% of a radioactive CXE product resistedsolubilisation in 6M NaOH at 37° C. (data not shown), indicating firmintegration within the fibres. BSA strongly promoted the CXE reaction onalkali-treated paper and on plain paper.

Affinity of the Recombinant HTG for XXXGol

The affinity of recombinant HTG for XXXGol was determined by determiningthe reaction rate (fmol/h) with mixed-linkage glucan and xyloglucan asdonor, at different concentrations of XXXGol. It was found that theK_(M) for XXXGol with mixed-linkage glucan as donor-substrate was0.52±0.06 μM, and the K_(M) for XXXGol with xyloglucan asdonor-substrate was 3.4±0.4 μM. This shows that HTG has a much higheraffinity for XXXGol than do XTHs (K_(M)˜50-200 μM).

The affinity of recombinant HTG for soluble donor-polysaccharides wasdetermined by measuring the ³H incorporation rate at differentconcentrations polysaccharides. The results are shown in Table 7.

TABLE 7 Vmax and Km values of recombinant HTG for different solubledonor polysaccharides Donor polysaccharide Vmax (Bq/kBq/h) K_(M) (mg/ml)xyloglucan 0.626 ± 0.057 0.226 ± 0.077 barley-mixed-linkage glucan 7.59± 0.60 1.25 ± 0.32 water-soluble cellulose acetate 0.29 ± 0.03 1.65 ±0.60 Iceland-moss mixed-linkage glucan 0.098 ± 0.014 3.05 ± 1.15

Table 7 shows that HTG has a lower affinity for barley-MLG than forxyloglucan. Iceland-moss MLG, largely comprising cellotriosylrepeat-units, was a poor donor-substrate. Thus HTG probably recognisescellotetraosyl repeat-units, which occur in barley-MLG and predominatein Equisetum-MLG.

EXAMPLE 5 Transformation of Plants with Htg

A T-DNA vector is constructed encoding a fusion protein of the 27 aminoacids signal sequence of the alpha-amylase 3 gene from rice (Sutcliff etal., 1991, Plant Mol Biol 16:579) and amino acids 22 to 280 of SEQ IDNO: 2 under control of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S promoter.

Wheat plants are transformed with the T-DNA vector encoding the HTGfusion protein. It is observed that the transformed wheat plants haveincreased stem strength, resulting in an improved stem lodgingresistance, and an increased pathogen resistance.

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1. (canceled)
 2. (canceled)
 3. (canceled)
 4. (canceled)
 5. (canceled) 6.A chimeric gene comprising the following operably linked elements: (a) apromoter, preferably expressible in plants (b) the nucleic acid selectedfrom the group consisting of: i. a nucleic acid sequence encoding aprotein having cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activitycomprising
 1. the amino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and8 or a functional fragment thereof; or
 2. an amino acid sequence havingat least 60% sequence identity to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs:2, 6 and 8, or
 3. an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequenceidentity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280, orto the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or to thesequence of SEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid 29 to 287, ii. a nucleic acidsequence having at least 60% sequence identity to the sequence of anyone of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 5 and 7 or the complement thereof; iii. a nucleicacid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity to the sequence ofSEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 64 to 840 or the complement thereof, or tothe sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5 from nucleotide 76 to 849 or the complementthereof, or to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7 from nucleotide 85 to 861 orthe complement thereof, and iv. a nucleic acid sequence hybridizingunder high stringency conditions to the sequence of any one of SEQ IDNOs: 1, 5 and 7 or the complement thereof; and, optionally, (c) atranscription termination and polyadenylation region.
 7. (canceled) 8.The chimeric gene of claim 6, wherein said promoter is a constitutivepromoter, a seed-specific promoter, a stem-specific promoter or afiber-specific promoter.
 9. (canceled)
 10. A host cell comprising thechimeric gene of claim
 6. 11. The cell of claim 10 which is a plantcell.
 12. A transgenic plant, plant part or seed comprising the chimericgene of claim
 6. 13. The transgenic plant of claim 12 which is selectedfrom cotton, wheat, canola and other oilseed rape, rice, corn, soy bean,sorghum, sunflower, tobacco, sugar beet, maize, barley, tomato, mango,peach, apple, pear, strawberry, banana, melon, potato, carrot, lettuce,cabbage, onion, sugar cane, pea, field beans, poplar, grape, citrus,alfalfa, rye, oats, turf and forage grasses, flax, nut producing plantsand wood producing plants.
 14. Method of producing a transgenic plantcomprising: a. providing a chimeric gene according to claim 6;introducing said chimeric gene or said vector into a plant.
 15. Methodof altering at least one fiber property in a fiber-producing plant orfor strengthening plant cell walls of a plant comprising expressing thechimeric gene according to claim 6 in said fiber-producing plant orplant.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said fiber property isselected from fiber strength and resistance to enzymatic digestion. 17.The method of claim 15, wherein strengthening a plant includesstrengthening its stem, increasing resistance to lodging and increasingresistance to infection by pathogens.
 18. The method of claim 15 furthercomprising growing said plant until seed is produced.
 19. (canceled) 20.Method for producing a cellulosic material with improved properties, themethod comprising contacting, in the presence of xyloglucan(oligosaccharide), or in the presence of xyloglucan (oligosaccharide) towhich an organic or inorganic molecule is covalently attached,cellulosic material with an effective amount of a protein havingcellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity comprising a. theamino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8 or a functionalfragment thereof; or b. an amino acid sequence having at least 60%sequence identity to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8,or c. an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity tothe sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280, or to thesequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or to the sequenceof SEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid 29 to
 287. 21. Method for producing acellulosic material with improved properties, said method comprisingproviding a plant of claim 12 and harvesting the cellulosic materialfrom said plant.
 22. The method of claim 20, wherein the cellulosicmaterial is selected from or comprised in fabric, paper, a cellulosederivative, packaging, building material, thickening agents, a medicaldressing, cellophane, dialysis tubing and resin for chromatographycolumns.
 23. Method for producing a protein having cellulose:xyloglucanendotransglucosylase activity wherein said protein comprises: (a) theamino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8 or a functionalfragment thereof; or (b) an amino acid sequence having at least 60%sequence identity to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 2, 6 and 8,or (c) an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity tothe sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid 22 to 280, or to thesequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 from amino acid 26 to 283, or to the sequenceof SEQ ID NO: 8 from amino acid 29 to 287; wherein said method comprisesculturing the host cell of claim 10 and isolating the protein produced.24. Cellulosic material produced by the method of claim
 20. 25.Cellulosic material comprising cellulose covalently attached toxyloglucan oligosaccharides via a glycosidic bond.
 26. The cellulosicmaterial of claim 25, wherein an organic or inorganic molecule iscovalently attached to said xyloglucan or xyloglucan oligosaccharides.27. (canceled)
 28. (canceled)
 29. A method of producing food, feed, oran industrial product comprising a) obtaining the plant or a partthereof, of claim 12; and b) preparing the food, feed or industrialproduct from the plant or part thereof.
 30. The method of claim 29wherein a) the food or feed is oil, meal, grain, starch, flour orprotein; or b) the industrial product is biofuel, fiber, industrialchemicals, a pharmaceutical or a nutraceutical.